Overland Issue 232 Spring 2018

Suzie Eisfelder

Another Monday another magazine. You’d be right in thinking I haven’t finished that anthology yet, I’m getting there but 900 pages is pretty heavy going. With less than 300 to go I should get there any week and then I’ll scribble a few words about it.

Overland has been publishing this magazine since 1954. It’s full of progressive culture, both essays and fiction. This quality writing is something everyone should read, if you can’t afford the magazine then check out your local library or haunt a friend with a subscription.

If you look on their website you’ll find some examples of the types of articles found in their magazines. I had a glance just now and found this article by Rebecca Giblin published three days ago about author rights within Australia. This is a follow up to her article in Issue 232. In the article in the print version of the magazine from last year Giblin doesn’t pull any punches talking about the publishing industry and how much (or how little) authors make. She makes an excellent case for authors to write as part of their overall working plan rather than just writing. The average writer makes $12,900 from their writing while if you look at the median it’s only $2,900. If you can live on that amount then you’re either very good at being frugal or you have other income to supplement it. There is far more to the article, though. Giblin talks about copyright as well. In the web article I pointed to above she answers the criticism of her article to do with contracts. Apparently people told her that authors’ rights were covered under contracts. Maybe they are but not every right, out-of-print clauses which cover writer’s earnings long after the book was first published are sometimes rather sketchy and favour the publisher more than the author.

Also in this edition is the prize winning poetry from the PEN Mildura Indigenous Writers Award. Judged by Natalie Harkin and including some notes from her, but reprinted here is the winning poem by Maya Hodge, Her Eyes. I’m not one for poetry but I do want to make mention of Natalie Harkin. We studied some of her poems at uni, they were taken from her book Dirty Words. If she’s judged something as being good then I’d trust her and read it.

Anyway. Here is the subscription link. I make no money out of this, I feel it’s important that we subscribe to these magazines in order to keep them going. If you’re lucky they may have some of this issue still available for sale.


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