243 Winter 2021 Buy this issue The history of Aboriginal theatre by Kim Kruger, Yves Rees on Detransition Baby, Robbo Bennetts on the West Gate Bridge and other crises, the winners of the Kuracca Prize for Australian literature and more. Issue Contents Features Torrey Peters Detransition, Baby Yves Rees The bridge and the fire Robbo Bennetts Feature | A teleology of folding, and of dying Dženana Vucic Coming through ceremony Kim Kruger Fiction see you later Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn Ritual Jenni Mazaraki Green thumb Donna Mazza Kuracca Prize Winner | Great Grandmother Arrabrilya Online soon Adam Brannigan Poetry Graphology restoration 17: name rename name ... term John Kinsella Graphology restoration 20 John Kinsella The coffee coffee drinks Dominic Symes Out of time Angela Gardner until it was memory Jennifer Nguyen Backseat driving Sam Morley Abattoir song Sam Morley what’s hobbling the beat (a soliloquy in three rhythms) Brian Obiri-Asare The dead sea Gayelene Carbis Among the quietening air Allis Hamilton Art Cover art: Anne Barnetson Anne Barnetson Editorial Editorial Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk Kuracca Prize Kuracca Prize Runner-up | The grief tourist Online soon Yeena Kirkbright Kuracca Prize Runner-Up | Me, the (failed) revolutionary Online soon Nandini Shah Kuracca Prize Winner | Great Grandmother Arrabrilya Online soon Adam Brannigan Judges notes, 2021 Kuracca Prize Justin Clemens, Jeanine Leane and Elena Gomez Browse the issue: Features Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Reviews Torrey Peters Detransition, Baby Yves Rees When, in late 2020, I first heard mention of a forthcoming novel called Detransition, Baby, I felt a jolt of alarm. A book with ‘detransition’ in the title? Surely this would be a TERF diatribe, companion to Abigail Shrier’s 2020 ‘social contagion’ screed Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. Based on the title […] Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Workers' rights The bridge and the fire Robbo Bennetts I want to begin by acknowledging the enduring loss experienced by those whose family members, loved ones and workmates died in Australia’s worst industrial accident. I started on the West Gate Bridge well after the collapse, and I often wondered if only those there on the day could fully comprehend the human dimensions of its tragedy. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Memoir Feature | A teleology of folding, and of dying Dženana Vucic For years, nobody called me by my name. In Brisbane, I was jen; in Melbourne people called me ana. It was a neat split, my name folded into a recognisable shape, the unnecessary syllables and foreign letters turned in against themselves and shushed. It is a recent thing to have claimed the full breadth of myself. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · History Coming through ceremony Kim Kruger The story goes that a writer, and wannabe singer, dancer and actor (who screamed like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and pivoted like James Brown), and a real actor and wannabe director (you might know her from such TV shows as Prisoner, The Flying Doctors, and the cult film Little Miss Wonder), met at the Black Playwright’s conference in 1989 in Canberra. Fiction Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Fiction see you later Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn Jess tossed and turned in her bed. Far away, she imagined thick sleeves of bull kelp sucking against limestone cliffs. The sea was restless, spreading itself over the crumbling city grid where vehicles dunked and flipped. Houses turned to flotsam as the Earth blinked, the eye of the storm turned away from the sun. There was no Moon—everything was churning liquid, rubbery darkness. She had sunk to the ocean floor, head firmly anchored to the pillow. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Fiction Ritual Jenni Mazaraki We live in a hotel now. Well, for the moment anyway. Until Thursday. Until the money runs out. Everything smells like mushrooms. People come and go, with their conferences and morning corporate functions. This morning, when we filled up on our complimentary breakfast in the small dining room for guests, I felt someone’s eyes on me and curled my lip. The animal in me rising. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Green thumb Donna Mazza Out at the rubbish tip, she was first to spot the old caravan. It sat proud amid the twisted swing-sets, crushed white dishwashers, and dejected hot water systems. ‘If you fix it up maybe we can go up north next winter, Jase?’ Jason was always up for bringing new life where others had abandoned hope. ‘The world has gone mad with all this stuff,’ he’d often say. ‘Why we need all this shit is beyond me.’ Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Teaser Kuracca Prize Winner | Great Grandmother Arrabrilya Adam Brannigan Online soon. In the meantime, subscribe to Overland. Poetry Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Graphology restoration 17: name rename name ... term John Kinsella No claim in the name ‘Jam Tree Gully’ — rather, a personal and familial association of presence which is neither assertion nor acquiescence. There are jam trees. There is a gully. No names displayed on gates. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Graphology restoration 20 John Kinsella I heard phrases I don’t recall having heard before when pied butcherbirds sang outside my sleep of a morning as indefinite article. Still troubled by the behaviours of a friend when we were catching reflections off a deep sacred lake Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry The coffee coffee drinks Dominic Symes ‘Fortis ut mors dilectio’ — from the Song of Solomon, as inscribed on a necklace my grandfather gave my grandmother on their engagement. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Out of time Angela Gardner You can’t ask a replica of a replica to get in the wrongness, to rise up. I’ve stuck my head in the algorithm unable to find an exit. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry until it was memory Jennifer Nguyen i am grieving for this wolf hole where her heart should be my cloak dyed red from her blood regret washes off my hand who holds her now that the hole has become a stone so heavy Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Backseat driving Sam Morley on the carpet at the rear of the family car juddering engine our throats to the night sky with mum green in the face from the dash light long roads thrum bodies still heads Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Abattoir song Sam Morley the shuffle hooves click head-to-hide cattle the press of mud shit billiard eyes shunt grunting low beams of steaming semis Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry what’s hobbling the beat (a soliloquy in three rhythms) Brian Obiri-Asare didn’t my mum and dad slave away through gritted teeth on hands and knees in the corner of some cooked plantation so their son could clean offices for $10 an hour — yo sit back — until their hands became a cocoa field of blisters so why you be surprised brother when we can’t take the weight when we can’t Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry The dead sea Gayelene Carbis We went to the Dead Sea but I didn’t bring my bathers so I couldn’t go in. I had to watch on the shore, I didn’t know then I’d never be back. I was young. I thought rivers and seas and skies lasted forever. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Poetry Among the quietening air Allis Hamilton We slow down enough to grow a patch of moss on our legs where the shade lives longest. Do not look away. We are growing through the most alarming of days. Art Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Art Cover art: Anne Barnetson Anne Barnetson Cover Back Read the rest of Overland 243 If you enjoyed this piece, buy the issue Or subscribe and receive four brilliant issues for a year Editorial Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Editorial Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk In Overland’s 243rd issue, we’re proud to print the results of the inaugural Kuracca prize established honour of Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert. Kuracca Prize Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Teaser Kuracca Prize Runner-up | The grief tourist Yeena Kirkbright Online soon. In the meantime, subscribe to Overland. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Teaser Kuracca Prize Runner-Up | Me, the (failed) revolutionary Nandini Shah Online soon. In the meantime, subscribe to Overland. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Teaser Kuracca Prize Winner | Great Grandmother Arrabrilya Adam Brannigan Online soon. In the meantime, subscribe to Overland. Published in Overland Issue 243 Winter 2021 · Prizes Judges notes, 2021 Kuracca Prize Justin Clemens, Jeanine Leane and Elena Gomez Judges notes from the 2021 Kuracca Prize for Australian Literature. Previous Issue 242 Autumn 2021 Next Issue 244 Spring 2021
