255 Winter 2024 Buy this issue 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. Issue Contents Features “Arts funding is fucked”: Overland 1973 — 1975 Sam Ryan Writing from the South: an interview with Kim Scott Samuel J Cox The Australian media’s problem with Palestine Juliet Fox Fiction The cephalopod Madeline Byrne The ice sculptor Lauren Collee Something is rotten Jordan Smith Poetry Work Yeena Kirkbright 29 February 2024, Lloyd Austin has said Tony Birch Poem in asymmetric transparency Shari Kocher my favourite animal is the universe Eliana Gray Icing DJ Huppatz How to burn Debbie Lim Drafts in red Corey Wakeling split mind Brendon IJ McLeod The killer in me Ann-Marie Blanchard Editorial Editorial Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk Browse the issue: Features Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · arts funding “Arts funding is fucked”: Overland 1973 — 1975 Sam Ryan . In writing about these historical debates, I do not intend to engage in any specificity around the contemporary funding of the arts with any utterance other than the most simple and correct: it’s fucked and will continue to be fucked. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Writing Writing from the South: an interview with Kim Scott Samuel J Cox At the end of October 2023, Kim Scott travelled to Adelaide to speak at the Stories from the South Book Club, a public event held at Dymocks, Rundle Mall that focused on his most recent novel, Taboo (2017). As a long-time admirer of Scott’s work and a passionate scholar of Australian literature, I sat down with Kim in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens the day before, where we conducted this interview. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · The media The Australian media’s problem with Palestine Juliet Fox Our access to information, reporting and education is central to our ability to understand, empathise and act in the face of one of the world’s worst atrocities. What we do now is built on our exposure to stories, access to information and our capacity to historically contextualise the present. The systematic silencing of Palestinian voices by the Australian media over decades has seriously impaired our ability to learn, know and act. Fiction Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Fiction The cephalopod Madeline Byrne In the quarter-hour before midnight, smoke is all that separates us. It carpets the ceiling, stitches together to form a woolly bridge where we meet as equals. Mouth to mouth, coin to pocket. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Fiction The ice sculptor Lauren Collee The ice sculptor had long black hair and an aristocratic profile and his name was Enrico. He sat with his legs crossed, resting his arm over my sister’s arm, as though his was very delicate and needed to use hers for a bed. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Fiction Something is rotten Jordan Smith It was never fully dark in their room, but this morning it was almost bright. Rob checked his phone. Poetry Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry Work Yeena Kirkbright Work gets caught under fingernails / nestles in the rolled-up cuffs of pants / falls to the bedroom floor, ends up in bed. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry 29 February 2024, Lloyd Austin has said Tony Birch The US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has said / 25,000 women and children have been killed / by Israel since 7 October Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry Poem in asymmetric transparency Shari Kocher This one’s not about throwing cake at Thea. / Or even balancing mindfully what grows out of mud. / Hint of gold on lacquered river — / beauty with a dangerous edge? Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry my favourite animal is the universe Eliana Gray a wolf fox with spindle legs / (whose closest relative is a bush dog) / strangled cry of the cuckooshrike / hungry throats weeping, stretched / / always all this yearning / tongues, hands, seeds / the urge to grow / is either noble or disgusting Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry Icing DJ Huppatz It rose and rose and rested, cracked and cooled. / Then came the sinking: a grammatical collapse, / showers of pixels, a rainbow of fairy sprinkles. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry How to burn Debbie Lim You had been gasping / between the orange / and the red, / between the look of the intimate / and the postures of the damned. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry Drafts in red Corey Wakeling The incarnadine highlands quench an obscure thirst. / Red Fanta exploded under the car seat. / Fifty-fix kilometres until the next Shell. Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry split mind Brendon IJ McLeod like the name of a demon in an enchiridion, / the questionable greek etymology (i hate it) / watches out from my health record / seeping wept blood into the curriculum / vitae Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Poetry The killer in me Ann-Marie Blanchard My uterus goes by Jolene and refuses / to wear white like the growth they cut /out of her (not a cancer scare; that scare / came later). Editorial Published in Overland Issue 255 Winter 2024 · Editorial Evelyn Araluen and Jonathan Dunk This issue goes to print on the cusp of a darkening world, as the Israeli war-crimes committed in response to Hamas’ attacks expand to Lebanon and Syria as they reach a year’s duration, and a confrontation of major powers looms on the horizon. Previous Issue 254 Autumn 2024 Next Issue 256 Spring 2024
