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.
Michelle Aung Thin was born in Burma, raised in Canada and writes about negotiating hybrid identity. Her novel, The Monsoon Bride (Text), is about the Anglo-Burmese in colonial Burma. Her current project crosses contemporary Yangon with historical Rangoon (funded by Asialink, Creative Victoria, Australia Council and Canada Council). She is also working on a book about Rohingya displacement. Michelle teaches at RMIT University.
