Holiday office hours

2018 has been a helluva year – one filled with literary and political highs and lows, some of which you can read about in our list to end all lists – but now it’s time for some rest.

Overland will be on holiday from 5pm Thursday 20 December, and back in the office bright and early the morning of Monday 14 January.

The magazine will start publishing online, and considering pitches and pieces, the following week.

Sincere thanks

A big shoutout to all our readers, contributors, submitters, volunteers and interns throughout the past year. We say it every year but it’s so very true: Overland would be impossible without you!

Thanks, too, to everyone who took out a subscription during Subscriberthon. The new issue started hitting mailboxes earlier this week; for those still waiting (looking at you New Zealand and Western Australia), the magazine should arrive any moment now.

If you’re not currently a subscriber, you can buy our hot-off-the-press summer issue, or take out a subscription for you or someone else you love, just in time for some holiday reading.

Our summer issue

Overland 233 is a special extended summer read featuring a red-armband history of 26 January, an analysis of Australian medievalism, a case for the eleven best essays of the past 3,533 days, and a comparative study of #IndigenousDads and the Noongar letters archive.

The edition includes brilliant, provocative fiction – by Claire G Coleman, Wayne Macauley, Robin M Eames and Elizabeth Tan – and the equally brilliant poetry, and results of the 2018 Fair Australia Prize.

Our guest artist for the edition is cartoonist, visual artist and long-time trade unionist, Mary Leunig.

While the whole issue is not live on the site just yet, you can read all the poetry, and all the winning entries from this year’s Fair Australia Prize, including Laura Elvery’s stunning short story, ‘Your cart is empty’:

Jeff is doing the school run for me today. I’m wondering where he is, if he’s going to want his usual teeny-tiny black coffee in a giant mug, when, just as we’re sitting down to breakfast, he knocks on the glass patio door and hauls it open. I pop a ristretto pod into the coffee machine. He rubs a hand across his bald head.

‘Hey,’ he says, pointing to my coat. ‘I know that coat.’

‘Yes,’ I say, ‘I got it from you. Well, from your shop.’

‘How long did it take to arrive?’

‘Less than a week.’

He nods, taking the mug from me, giving me an approving smile.

Flick through the rest of our summer issue or investigate subscriptions, for yourself or a loved one, which start at $45.

Summer writerly opportunities

Writers, we want your short fiction themed around ‘future sex’!

Overland is seeking fiction submissions for a special online edition themed around ‘future sex’, to be edited by Michalia Arathimos. We are looking for stories that engage with what our changing sexualities look like, both now and in the future. Submissions close 11.59pm, Monday 14 January. Read more about this special fiction edition.

Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers (Fiction)

In 2019, the Nakata Brophy prize will be awarded to the best short fiction (up to 3000 words in length) by an Indigenous writer who is 30 years or younger. First place is a $5000 prize, publication in Overland’s print magazine, and a writing residency at the University of Melbourne. Visit the prize page for details.

In solidarity, so long, proshchay,
take care, wadaeaan, all the best, adiaŭo,
shalom, see you next year!