In this highly anticipated new issue, we encounter brilliant examples of what writing can do in a hypernormal time – whether that's Benjamin Gready on the absurdity of fieldwork on land under active occupation or Zahid Gamieldien's short story about a dancing rat who finds itself enmeshed in systems too shadowy to be true. But, as with the emotional cycles of resistance, hope and snark are features too. Dan Hogan considers the lawn as a class obsession, and π.ο. asks a question: why people hate poetry? We also read about a rakhasa family who passes on wisdom to their young kin, a story by Shefali Mathew. And you’ll find new poetry by Eli McLean, Fiona Hile and Sol Chan, among others, as well as a comic by Safdar Ahmed, plus heaps more. Co-editors Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk write in the editorial, "Writing always matters, but it matters most directly in the face of this kind of thuggish assault on language, our first and last commons. We can’t let the bastards have it.”
Dr Sara Cheikh Husain is a researcher and writer specialising in Islamophobia, social justice, and human rights, with a focus on Palestinians, Muslim communities in the West, and refugees. Her PhD in Social Sciences at Deakin University’s Alfred Deakin Institute was supported by the UNESCO Chair for Cultural Diversity and Social Justice. Sara has published widely in leading academic journals, collaborated with the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN) with a supplementary document for the UN Special Rapporteur’s 2020 report on anti-Muslim hatred and discrimination, presented at the international Embracing Diversity: Tackling Islamophobia in 2024 conference in Baku, co-authored A War of Words on media coverage of the Israel–Gaza war, and her latest is a book (2025): The politics of anti-Islamophobia in Australia: The case of the Muslim community organisations. She serves on the Executive of AAIMS.
