Editorial | Poetry in Lockdown - Overland literary journal

In the first half of 2020, Overland received a small grant to help the magazine provide writing and publishing opportunities during the pandemic lockdown, part of a broader scheme by Creative Victoria to save the arts sector when so many jobs and gigs completely disappeared for so many artists. ‘Poetry in Lockdown’ is one outcome of this—a standalone poetry special issue containing new work by twelve poets from across Australia. In commissioning these new works we imposed no theme on the poets. However, with the pandemic as background to all our lives, it is impossible not to read the poems in that context. Collating these poems has been a salve for us. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have.

Eunice Andrada — kulani
Tony Birch — Waiting for a train with Thelma Plum
Andrew Brooks — Excerpt from ‘salt’
Mark Cayanan — Stillbirths wrapped in newsprint
Michael Farrell — Leaves to the imagination
Adalya Nash Hussein — October monthly
Neika Lehman — The well
Jazz Money — The new place
Leah Muddle — A spiral (or certain themes revisited)
Emily Stewart — Sky updates / blue platform
Dženana Vucic — 500 words towards feeling: or, all my poems become war poems
Panda Wong — Cemeteries on google earth: a suite of poems

Read the rest of Poetry in Lockdown, edited by Toby Fitch and Melody Paloma

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Toby Fitch

Toby Fitch, living on unceded Gadigal land, is poetry editor of Overland, a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Sydney, and the author of eight books of poetry, including Sydney Spleen and Where Only the Sky had Hung Before.

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Melody Paloma

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256 Spring 2024

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Overland 256 is the third issue in a suite of four special editions dedicated to commemorating 70 years of Overland. Inside its pages you'll find: Daniel Browning on the politics of memory, Antonia Pont on impatience, Sarah Wehbe on Palestinian fury and joy, and a special editorial by our departing poetry editor Toby Fitch. There's also new short fiction from Rowan MacDonald, Bethany Lalor and Amalia Stone, and new poetry from Josie Suzanne, Tim Loveday, Lulu Houdini and more.