Overland 254 is the first in a set of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. This issue also launches a new design and format by Common Room Editions, inspired by Overland’s trove of radical literature spanning from 1954 to today. Andrew Brooks and Astrid Lorange consider the asymmetrical responses to two events: the wearing of keffiyehs by three cast members during the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Anton Chekov’s The Seagull, and, on the same day in the US, the shooting of three Palestinian men wearing keffiyehs. Jeff Sparrow uncovers the Sydney Herald’s legacy of Terra Nullius, and Daniel Lopez writes on Marx, Meredith and the festival as an inversion of modern life.
Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and academic. She has appeared at the Melbourne & Sydney Writers Festivals and on Radio National’s Books and Arts Daily. Bec has judged a number of literary prizes, including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and her reviews can be found in The Australian, Bookseller & Publisher and Australian Book Review. She has written fiction and non-fiction for a number of publications including Westerly, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction and the Shuffle anthology. Bec was the Schools Manager for the Stella Prize for five years, and is currently schools programmer at the Wheeler Centre and a sessional tutor and academic at LaTrobe University.
