To launch issue 205 – the last edition of a thrilling publishing year – and to thank our bloggers, contributors and, especially, our readers for the past 360ish days, Overland is having a merry launch/party. Come to Chez Regine at 6pm on Friday 2 December and let us buy you a drink.

What about this new issue? we hear you ask excitedly. Superb question! In the new issue:

o Norwegian writer Mattias Gardell examines the Oslo massacre and the rise of the anti-Muslim right in Europe

o Robert Bollard discovers his Indigenous heritage and considers what it means

o Stephanie Honor Convery and Katrina Fox disagree on sex and animal rights

o Arnold Zable, John Bradley, Kim Scott and Marie Munkara discuss the politics of Indigenous languages

o Xavier Rizos explains the problematic logic of the carbon tax

o Sarah Drummond contemplates the death of a whale and the difficulties of parenting

o Brad Nguyen considers the 2011 London riots

o Caroline Hamilton explores the promise of small presses in the age of digital publishing

o Peter Slezak takes aim at the New Atheists

o Rjurik Davidson analyses the right-wing logic of torture porn movies

o Australian Poetry Centre’s Robert Lukins and poet Ali Alizadeh debate the mainstreaming of poetry

o Alexis Wright, Stephen Muecke and Louise Pine all contribute brilliant new fiction

o And Angela Smith, Ruby Todd, Stuart Barnes, Maketh Ajak, Cath Drake, D J Huppatz, Molly Guy, Eileen Chong, Cameron Lowe, Phillip Hall and Stuart Cooke impress us with their poetic verse

Issue 205 is to be launched by the spectacular Jane Gleeson-White, author and editor extraordinaire (and Overland fiction editor).

When is this merry launch? 6pm, Friday 2 December
Where is this merry launch? Chez Regine
(270 Russell Street, Melbourne)
What will this merry launch cost me? First drink is on us*, then you buy your own

*Unless 10,000 people turn up; we simply don’t have the budget to shout that many free drinks