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 November 2025 · Fiction The dumb bike: tenderness as the ramification of arcane physical labour Claire Stendell I wouldn’t say it’s an important job. I wouldn’t even say it’s a job that makes much sense at first. I’d describe it more as having the virtue of simplicity, of being relatively easy to do as long as you have the requisite ability to move and lift. It certainly isn’t rewarding in any conventional sense. Beyond the funds deposited into my bank account twice monthly, its larger economic benefit is, to me at least, quite unclear. 8 July 20258 July 2025 · Fiction Off Jo Langdon Christa has gone off me, and it’s all I try not to think about—packing angles of chopped watermelon into tupperware, filling our drink bottles, walking with Lila towards the park.