Cirrus@Austlit

The Melbourne Realist Writers Group (RWG), established in 1944, sought to build a working-class culture of readers and writers by encouraging those of the working class to write of their experiences. Closely associated with the Communist Party, the group was informed by the social-realist formula promoted by Zhdanov, head of the Soviet Writer's Union. The RWG employed a ready-made critical methodology to assess the work produced within the group, preferring accurate description of conditions in simple language rather than symbolic narratives in a prose style inaccessible to the ordinary reader.

To support the goals of the RWG, the Realist Writer was established in 1952. Essentially an in-house bulletin, the Realist Writer enabled members to more readily view each others work. In addition, it provided space for polemical statements about Communism and guidance for the practice of social realism.

Realist Writer ran for nine issues as a foolscap-sized roneo copy. Edited first by Bill Wannan, then Stephen Murray-Smith, it was eventually incorporated into the first issue of Overland. Overland split with the Communist Party in 1956, partly because Stephen Murray-Smith rejected ideologically based assessment, preferring to accept contributions on literary merit alone. This left the RWG without a publication until Realist Writer was revived in 1958.

Ceased publication in 1994

'With Audio Overland, a major Australian literary journal has found its way to publishing a literature previously beyond its scope. That there is a new venue for great Australian literature is something for all writers to celebrate. That the literature in question is aural text, in a country where so few opportunities exist for the creators of aural poetry to be recognised in terms on par with their less vocal poetic comrades, makes the occasion all the more significant.' (Source: http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/audio-overland/ )