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 Wright lives in Eltham, Victoria. Her short stories have won many awards in Australia, the US and UK including The Age and Alan Marshall Short Story Awards. Her short story collection, Fine, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and was published in 2016. Her novel, Small Acts of Defiance (Allen and Unwin) will be released in June 2021.