Published 19 December 201911 March 2020 · Fiction / Activities / callout Your summer writing challenge Editorial team Hope you didn’t have any plans this summer, because we need you to clear your schedule for our first special fiction edition of 2020. About special edition Overland is seeking fiction submissions for a special online fiction edition edited by Allan Drew. We are looking for stories with urgency, a clear reason for being told – stories that adhere to that idea that the impulse behind all fiction is “hey, you gotta hear this”. Allan is especially interested in stories where the characters are put under pressure in some way, and we get the chance to see what they’re made of. About the guest editor Allan Drew teaches Creative Writing and Communications at Massey University. You can find him online at www.allan-drew.com. Submission details Submissions close 31 January 2020. The special issue will be available online in March. Stories can run from flash fiction to longer short stories, but the maximum word length for submissions is 4000 words. Kindly note: writers may submit no more than two stories for consideration for this special issue. Submit your story as: Current Overland subscriber? Click here to submit your story. Not yet an Overland subscriber? Click here to submit your story. (Remember, you can support Overland by becoming a subscriber.) Read one of our previous fiction issues Anna Spargo-Ryan – Our Hour Mandy Beaumont and Craig Bolland – The Idea of Women issue Ben Walter – Anti-/dis-/un-Australian fiction issue Rachel Hennessy Khalid Warsame Kate Goldsworthy Oliver Driscoll SJ Finn Emily Laidlaw Miranda Camboni Editorial team More by Editorial team › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 1 First published in Overland Issue 228 11 August 202322 August 2023 · Fiction Fiction | Alison Katelin Farnsworth The things I want to say aren’t the sort of things you’re allowed to say out loud. You’re not even meant to think the things I think. But sometimes I think them anyway and sometimes I want to say them, so badly, that my chest fills with this irredeemable rage and I don’t know which way to look. First published in Overland Issue 228 14 July 202318 July 2023 · Fiction Fiction | A Quiet Man Barry Revill I’m a quiet man. I don’t talk much. I like a quiet drink. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes too much. I have this quiet spot at the Royal pub. Just a little spot around from the bar near the corner. They always serve me a beer as soon as I walk in. A bit of a nod, a bit of a wink, and then I slide on to the stool and rest my elbow on the bar. This is what I do. I watch people. They think I’m looking straight into my beer glass. Well, I am, sort of. But most of the time I am looking at people.