This issue goes to print on the cusp of a darkening world… Overland 255 is the second issue in a suite of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. In this issue, Samuel J Cox interviews Kim Scott on his works True Country (1993) and Benang (1995) in ‘Writing from the South’. Elsewhere, Juliet Scott interrogates ‘The Australian Media’s problem with Palestine’ and Sam Ryan looks back at Overland and the state of arts funding in Australia from 1973 to 1975. This issue also features poetry from Yeena Kirkbright, DJ Huppatz, Debbie Lim, among others, and short fiction from Lauren Collee, Madeline Byrne and Jordan Smith.
Mohammad Asif Rahimi, a 28-year-old from Afghanistan, belongs to the Hazara community, the third largest and most oppressed ethnicity in the world. Asif graduated from high school and studied political science in Kabul city. He speaks four languages. Due to security concerns and persecution, he had to leave Afghanistan and seek asylum in Indonesia through UNHCR. He is currently living in Balikpapan detention centre.
He has been in detention and deprived of all basic rights since late 2014.
