Colonial authoritarianism did not start with Chris Minns: in her new comic, Eav Brennan weaves the testimonies of friends who participated in the Herzog rally at Town Hall with the recent history of the attacks on the right to protest in NSW.

“The story of my ancestors was written in the marks on our bodies and told around meals cooked in an underground oven then shared with the rest of our people over laughs.” So begins MAGERE, a new story written and illustrated by the wonderful Dorell Ben.

“The selective punishment of one group of migrants or refugees is not an incidental feature of our migration regime: it is its central organising principle.” Sanmati Verma, Josephine Langbien and James Clarke on the new wave of deportations to Nauru.

“I argue that the use of this term must not be dislocated from Indigenous critiques of settler colonialism.” Ruth De Souza on the misuse of Cultural Safety.

If you sit still and quietly in a natural environment for twelve minutes, then the animals there will go back to how they were acting before you arrived: a new poster by the inimitable @samwallman.bsky.social.

“When it comes to fiction, then, I am arguing that the anxiety that provoked the writing of Juice is incited by, not detached from, capitalism and power, and no less dangerous than what Winton describes as apathy.” Daniel Ray on Tim Winton’s JUICE

“This is the story of what this win means — not just for the Starkeys and the Kokatha people, but for the global arms trade and the corporate actors operating on Indigenous lands.” Miriam Deprez on how Kokatha custodians took on multinationals in the Woomera Prohibited Area.

Our Summer Program concludes today with MASSIVE GLACIER COLLAPSE COMPILATION VOL 9, a brilliant new poem by Lach Valentine. Generously supported by our friends at @copower.bsky.social.

“But Gabriel was not alone, no matter how far his woolly thoughts stretched, and how eternal time felt.” Our Summer program continues with the first Friday Fiction for 2026: BALM OF HURT MINDS by Claire Cao.

“And so ends an obscene, morally violent and deceptive novel.” In what may be Overland’s most Summer read ever, John Kinsella engages in a masterful, labyrinthine (and parenthetical, elliptical …) reading of Hawthorne’s THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.

We've lost Meanjin, a situation that was completely unthinkable until it actually happened. Don't think we won't lose more. It's quite clear there are people who don't care what they destroy for political gain. Literary culture in this country is already frayed. Don't let it come apart entirely.

In addition to supporting Palestinian writers like Randa Abdel-Fattah, and authors and artists who withdrew from AWW in solidarity, spare a thought for the "little" magazines like @overlandjournal.bsky.social, who have relentlessly stood up for Palestine and have been comprehensively defunded for it

If we don't have places like @overlandjournal.bsky.social who will publish dissenting voices, writers who make the hard and uncomfortable arguments, unapologetic left-wing positions, and who do the work of helping writers find their voices, we don't have literature in this country

“The Adelaide Festival’s decision to dump Palestinian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah gives us a grim foretaste of the Australian cultural landscape in 2026.” David Brophy on “ambient antisemitism” and the institutional mechanisms for curtailing protest and political expression.

If you haven't read @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social's article for @overlandjournal.bsky.social yesterday on the politics of what's happened in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre, let me recommend you do so now. overland.org.au/2025/12/on-t...

“I kept telling myself, “There’s no such thing as Climate Police”. They simply do not exist.” Our final online magazine post for the year is a new cli-fi story by Madison Hovey — generously supported by @copower.bsky.social

“If we’re to emerge from this awful spiral,” writes @jeffsparrow1.bsky.social, “we’ll only do so on the basis of a very different politics: one that takes for granted the ability of ordinary people — of any race, gender or creed — to unite against racism and violence.”

“The Free Palestine protests have been a vital site amidst a deteriorating political climate where solidarity and compassion are forged.” Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak on the role of the solidarity movement in the fight against antisemitism.

“But it’s also that this land, this beautiful Aboriginal land, was not made to hold such grief. It can, and it does, but it shouldn’t have this burden thrust upon itself.” @jordanas.bsky.social on the logic of violence that permeates Australia.

“Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that anti-Arab sentiment and xenophobia are not confined to the past, or to Cronulla.” Megan McElhone addresses revisionist histories of the Cronulla Riots, twenty years on.

“One reader asked me, “Did you ever work out who the informants were?”” After reading through more personal files and the scholarship of the past seven years, Tom Orsag follows up on his 2018 OVERLAND piece on the workings of ASIO.

Both the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize submissions have been extended until midnight this Friday! Links below:

In an article for Overland, Scarlet Alliance CEO Mish Pony explores a censorship legacy that was the forerunner to Australia’s online safety codes. Read the article via overland.org.au/2025/12/howa...

“If Australian policy-makers genuinely want to safeguard young people, the evidence points elsewhere: comprehensive, non-stigmatising sexuality education that acknowledges pleasure, consent and diversity.” The Scarlet Alliance’s Mish Pony on Phase 2 of Australia’s online safety codes.

“I was analysing systems of state power at the exact moment one of those systems was destroying my family.” Two years after his mother was killed by an airstrike in Khan Younis, Hazem Almassry writes about how universities exploit Palestinian expertise.

“Planning is political, especially in a country where it has been used to facilitate settler frames of land commodification and exclusion.” An in-depth history by Rachel Gallagher of urban planning as a colonial tool.

A typically incisive piece by Jonno Revanche in Overland on bad essays, Substack writing, and the general state that we’re in overland.org.au/2025/12/with...

“Perhaps the poor essay still reveals, through its derivative gestures, the outline of the writer it tried to replace.” Jonno Revanche on the present of a form, and what might still amount to real writing.

“Time is non-existent. Intangible and unknowable. We’ve been driving for days… maybe months, impossible to tell.” Our latest #fridayfiction is THE ROAD TRIP, a new story by Jaslyn Angus.

“We stand at a precipice where hunger and spectacle are colliding in full view — where the performance of plenty becomes more valued than the provision of sustenance.” Angelique Minas on the Versailles-era turn in grocery.

“That old one — the working class as one dumb mass — is nothing but another bourgeois cliché. We are not simpletons, we’re just exploited.” From a polemic by Sergio Chesán on literature and class, translated for us by Roy Duffield.

By making the monster human and the humans monstrous, del Toro draws us back to the radical empathy of Shelley’s novel, but also into familiar ableist horror tropes.” Kosa Monteith on maternity, monstrosity and disability in the new FRANKENSTEIN.

“She learned to use ink to slowly cover her reflection in the water, hiding it from every eye, until her skin grew a waterproof shell.” From HER NAME IS A RIVER, our latest #Fridaypoem by Tangqing Zhang. overland.org.au/2025/11/her-...

“During the late months of 2024, it was becoming readily clear to some of us that Gaza existed on two incommensurable planes: one which was transmitted in Arabic and the other in English.” An introduction to OF WEAPONS AND WORDS, and to the vital task of translating militant writings on Palestine.

“Wianamattas’ emus are a testament to the importance of caring for even the ordinary parts of our living world—the parts that we take for granted.” As part of our series supported by @copower.bsky.social, Andy Mason goes searching for Sydney’s last “wild” emus

In the final hours of our Subscriberthon, our brilliant co-editors Evelyn and Jonathan have an important message for you. Head to overland.org.au/shop or overland.org.au/donate today.

For the last day of our Subscriberthon we have set aside something *very* special: a gallery of stunning portraits of Palestinian activists by Tia Kasambalis, with an introduction by Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak. Here’s PORTRAITS OF RESISTANCE.

LAST CHANCE! We're wrapping things up over here, which means today is your last chance to win BIG. Today's prize pack is looking pretty gorgeous, and don't forget you're still in the running to win either of our major prizes, too! Head to overland.org.au/shop now to enter!

We have put a lot of effort recently in making available the entire archive of OVERLAND’s 70+ year history. In that spirit, on the penultimate day of Subscriberthon we bring you this previously unpublished interview with historian Humphrey McQueen on state violence and the arming of the police.

Good morning! It's the second-last day of our Subscriberthon, and the prizes don't stop coming. Head to overland.org.au/shop today to support us and go into the draw to win!

“We live in an oligarchy, but with this humidity it feels like a dictatorship.” On Day #5 of Overland’s subscriberthon, we bring you “Force posture agreement”, a new poem by Miroslav Sandev. overland.org.au/2025/11/forc...

On the third last day of our Subscriberthon, the prizes just keep coming - head to overland.org.au/shop today to support us and go into the running to win some amazing prize bundles!

On day #4 of Overland's Subscriberthon, we bring you two reviews of books about Palestine: by Yahia Lababidi on ONE DAY, EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS and Norman Saadi Nikro on DAYBREAK IN GAZA.

Subscriberthon Day Four is upon us... today we have a prize pack that's ridiculously good - books, download codes, doubles passes, trinkets, treats, and tea! Head to overland.org.au/shop now to go in the running to win!

Thank you to @zahrastardust.bsky.social for this beautiful review of Love in a F*cked-Up World in @overlandjournal.bsky.social. "Soft and fierce, utopian and practical, inscribed with beauty and strength, Love in a F*cked Up World is both an intervention and a guidebook."

Renewed my subscription to @overlandjournal.bsky.social for another year. Always essential reading. Please subscribe/donate if you can - overland.org.au

I love the perspective shot Sam uses in the final frame of this comic

"We work at the most automated port on planet Earth. Our job description is literally "assisting automation"." On day #3 of Overland's Subscriberthon, we bring you — who else? — the great Sam Wallman.

It's #Noirvember and also the @overlandjournal.bsky.social Subscriberthon! Here's a piece on the joys of themed viewing I wrote for Overland a few years ago, plus a reminder to: watch noir and support great independent publications. overland.org.au/2022/11/noir...

The third day of our Subscriberthon is here! Today we have gifts from Kill Your Darlings, Voiceworks, UQP, and a very generous Readings voucher - plus, every day you go into the running to win a major prize! Head to overland.org.au/shop to subscribe or donate today!