Published in Overland Issue 256 Spring 2024 · Poetry the most democratic artform Tim Loveday see our honour … systems are standardised … have you tried … to familiarise … yourself … with our subscription page … doc. or doc.x accepted … please submit to us … using word … a macbook … a mahogany desktop … grammarly premium requires … a virus software … update … your bank account … for details … try some research … in paris … each entry comes with … dependents … and sick parents … so consider … redrafting this … content … for your contribution is valued … at the cost of … brekky … choose submission fees … the membership is non-negotiable … and judges will … not engage in dialogue … about rent … or class … isms must be hyphenated … though a writers … org … is a union … in other words … the submittable never sets … 3.5 spacing … is the new … profit … margin … so make all your … double-blind … cheques … out in 12 point … times … ticking … new roman … of course … your … caesura … leaves you with apt space … in … housing … consider … taking up an alumni … residency … at half the price … of your … business … degrees in creative … industries … are expected … short courses … in shortening … each sentence … to half … your working … life span … do not forget … to check out … our check out … familiarise … yourself … with past paid … contentment … the pay walls … aren’t for … scaling … up … your output … isn’t quite … right for us … at this time … don’t worry … writerly practice … is practicing … class … patience … but it pays … not to be … a victim … of the … guidelines … write … what comes natural … just not in those … terms … refer again … and take … time off … reconsider … what … ocean views … you’re looking … into … In response to Richard Flanagan who called writing “the most democratic artform” during a panel at the 2023 Sydney Writers’ Festival Tim Loveday Tim Loveday is a poet, writer and educator. His work explores class, masculinity, rurality and climate collapse. In 2024, he came runner-up in the Cloncurry Poetry Prize and was a finalist in the Montreal Poetry Prize, The Griffith Review Emerging Voices Prize and the Best Australian Yarn. In 2023, he won the Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Award and was shortlisted for the David Harold Tribe Poetry Prize. In 2022, he won the Dorothy Porter Poetry Award. You can find out more at: timloveday.com More by Tim Loveday › 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 5 November 2025 · Poetry Force posture agreement Miroslav Sandev The men of Darwin have all taken their rottweilers / out for a walk at the same time. / For our protection. Like Pine Gap: / all those big white eyes that scan / the darkening horizon. / The eyes stay woke, so that we may sleep. / Or so they say. 1 22 August 202522 August 2025 · Poetry starmight K.A Ren Wyld Ending genocide and apartheid is the story. Palestinian liberation is the story. / Aboriginal rights is the story. Truth, justice, treaties and land back is the story. / Global Indigenous peoples’ solidarity and joy is the story. Kinship is the story.
