In this highly anticipated new issue, we encounter brilliant examples of what writing can do in a hypernormal time – whether that's Benjamin Gready on the absurdity of fieldwork on land under active occupation or Zahid Gamieldien's short story about a dancing rat who finds itself enmeshed in systems too shadowy to be true. But, as with the emotional cycles of resistance, hope and snark are features too. Dan Hogan considers the lawn as a class obsession, and π.ο. asks a question: why people hate poetry? We also read about a rakhasa family who passes on wisdom to their young kin, a story by Shefali Mathew. And you’ll find new poetry by Eli McLean, Fiona Hile and Sol Chan, among others, as well as a comic by Safdar Ahmed, plus heaps more. Co-editors Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk write in the editorial, "Writing always matters, but it matters most directly in the face of this kind of thuggish assault on language, our first and last commons. We can’t let the bastards have it.”
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April 29 @ 5.30 pm – 9.00 pm
Delivered by activist, author and linguistics scholar Nick Riemer, with readings from award-winning poets Micaela Sahhar and Ender Başkan.
Activist, author and linguistics scholar Nick Riemer will be in conversation with co-editors Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk, with readings from award-winning poets Micaela Sahhar and Ender Başkan.
29 April 2026Solidarity Hall at Trades Hall 54 Victoria St Carlton 5.30PM till 9PM
Book your tickets here.
Nick Riemer is a frequent contributor to Overland and works in the English and Writing and Linguistics departments at the University of Sydney. He is currently academic vice-president of the Sydney University branch of the National Tertiary Education Union. He is a long-term refugee rights and Palestine campaigner. He is the author of Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine. Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation (2023), a defence of the academic boycott of Israel in the context of a wider reflection on the connections between intellectual and political work. Alongside his colleague John Keane, he is currently fighting a racial discrimination case in the Federal Court of Australia, aimed at silencing criticism of Zionism and Israel.
Micaela Sahhar is an Australian–Palestinian writer and educator living on Wurundjeri Country. Her essays, poetry and commentary have appeared in Cordite, Meanjin, Overland, Rabbit and Sydney Review of Books, among others. Her debut memoir, Find Me at the Jaffa Gate, was the winner of the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (Nonfiction) and longlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize.
Ender Başkan is a Melbourne-based poet, novelist, small-press publisher and bookseller. The winner of the 2021 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, his poems have been published in HEAT, Meanjin, Cordite, Unusual Work and Best of Australian Poems. He has also published a novel, A Portrait of Alice as a Young Man. He is the co-founder of Vre Books press, Agog poetry readings and Study experimental space. His debut poetry collection Two Hundred Million Musketeers was published by Giramondo and shortlisted in the 2026 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (Poetry).
