Support The White Review for 2022

ABOUT THE WHITE REVIEW

For the past decade, our magazine has provided a platform for ambitious new art and writing, supported international and UK-based writers and artists at a crucial stage in their development, championed literature in translation, and published a vital programme of cultural reviews read by an international audience.

Remember Virginie Despentes’s blistering take-down of the Académie des César, translated by Frank Wynne? Johanna Hedva’s hagiography of Nine Inch Nails? Meena Kandasamy’s extraordinary essay on writing, trauma and the fate of women Tamil Tigers? Juliet Jacques's reckoning with the films of Adam Curtis? Sally Rooney's short story ‘At the Clinic‘? Lauren Elkin on écriture féminine? Deborah Levy’s ‘Weeping Machines‘, the starting point for her ‘living autobiography‘ series?

‘The White Review is a gift for writers, and for literature.’ – Claire-Louise Bennett

These examples only scratch the surface of the work The White Review does, showcasing a diverse mixture of emerging and established artists and writers side by side. We've published interviews with brilliant cultural figures, from Anuk Arudpragasam, Julia Kristeva and Lydia Davis, to Anne Carson, Gustav Metzger, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Dayanita Singh and Yvonne Rainer, and worked with artists including Jamie Crewe, Allison Katz and Toyin Ojih Odutola to design beautiful cover art and image series.

‘A cultural juggernaut. Seismic in its impact on both aspiring and established voices. An essential space for great writing and thinking.’ – Irenosen Okojie MBE

Our activities extend beyond the page. Our Short Story Prize and Poet's Prize have helped amplify some of the most exciting new voices in fiction and poetry, including Claire-Louise Bennett, Julia Armfield, Sophie Mackintosh, Lucy Mercer and Vanessa Onwuemezi, along with our most recent winners, Kandace Siobhan Walker and RZ Baschir. We host online and in-person events, provide editorial mentorships in partnership with Ledbury Poetry Critics, and help run the annual, international Hope Street Writer in Residence programme in collaboration with the University of Liverpool.

‘Nothing less than a cultural revolution.’ –  Deborah Levy

WHY WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

The White Review depends upon the support of its readers, and, as we move into our second decade, we need your help. 

The past two years have been particularly difficult for small charities, independent journals and publishers like us, as we’ve been hit by both Covid-19 and Brexit. Opportunities for holding live events have (understandably) been limited, and with this we have lost a significant income stream. This has included our annual fundraiser, which is why we are taking this year's fundraiser online. 

Competition for public funding is higher than ever before, postage costs have gone up, VAT regulations have hampered sales to the European Union, and the cost of printing has risen owing to an increase in the price of paper.

Nothing we do – not the magazine, nor the website, nor our prizes, events or residency – is possible without your support. 

If you can, please consider donating to The White Review. With your help we can secure the future of the magazine, and enable us to become even more ambitious. The White Review is a registered charity (Charity Number: 1148690). All donations are tax deductible.

We have exciting plans for 2022, starting with our next print issue: in the New Year we will be launching issue 32 of The White Review. Our cover is ‘Three Architects’ (2019) by Lubaina Himid, who is interviewed in the issue. Issue 32 includes interviews with Irenosen Okojie and Ocean Vuong on memory and myth-making; Rebecca Liu on representations of Asian mothers in fiction; poetry by Kandace Siobhan Walker, the winner of The White Review Poet’s Prize 2020/21; and much more, which we'll share with you soon. 

We will publish three print magazines alongside our weekly online publishing, which is free to read. This will be complemented by our Prizes, an interdisciplinary events series, new workshops, and much more.

By supporting us you can help to ensure that we are able to continue to create space for new art and writing in 2022 and beyond. Our funding goal of £10,000 will enable us to print and distribute the next issue of The White Review, and will support the magazine while we secure public funding.

‘As a writer, The White Review has provided an essential platform for me to explore new works in considerable depth. As a reader, it has brought plenty of new authors and artists to my attention for more than a decade, and it would be great if they could continue to do so for years to come.’ – Juliet Jacques

WHO WE ARE

The White Review was launched by Ben Eastham and Jacques Testard in February 2011, to provide ‘a space for a new generation to express itself unconstrained by form, subject or genre’, and takes its name from LA REVUE BLANCHE, a Parisian magazine which ran from 1889 to 1903. 

The White Review is run by a small, dedicated part-time team and supported by the board and the contributing editors.

Samir Chadha is Editorial Assistant at The White Review, and is based in London. He’s currently studying for an MA at Birkbeck, and also likes to cook.

Theodora Danek is the Managing Editor. She lives in Vienna, where she occasionally edits and writes. When she's not working, she enjoys cycling and literature in translation.

Joanna Lee is Editorial Assistant (Poetry) in residence with Ledbury Poetry Critics. She lives in London, has written poetry criticism for a number of publications from the Guardian to the LARB and works in publishing — currently at Curtis Brown.

Rosanna McLaughlin is Co-Editor of The White Review. She lives in Glasgow where she is currently working on a ‘lesbian noir’ novel with Montez Press. In 2019 she published Double-Tracking: Studies in Duplicity, a collection of satirical essays and short-fiction published by Carcanet Press. She has written on subjects from Ariana Grande and Frieze Art Fair to the history of dog-breeding, and she has also edited a number of books. 

Izabella Scott is Co-Editor of The White Review. She lives in London, where she is currently working on a PhD about a sex offence trial, and a controversial section of law, which outlines ‘sexual fraud’, or ‘sex by lies’: where sexual consent is gained by deception, and is therefore legally invalid. She loves to swim.

Thomas Swann is art director and designer of The White Review. In 2020, he founded Zegris Books, an imprint publishing on fashion and design. He is based in Brussels.

Skye Arundhati Thomas is co-editor of The White Review. She tries to write thoughtfully about Indian politics and visual culture, and is the author of 'Remember the Details' out now with Floating Opera Press. She lives in Goa with her dog Luna.

‘The White Review has always been a rich resource and platform for people whose written work is central to their practice and yet never quite finds itself perfectly at home: not in a book, on the wall of a gallery, or in a film script. Please support The White Review’s future to build a bigger house.‘ – Lawrence Abu Hamdan

REWARDS

As a thank you for your support, we are offering a set of rewards, from issues and book bundles to manuscript consultations. We're grateful for your contribution. We couldn't do this without you!

PRAISE

‘The White Review has boldly carved out a space for itself in the contemporary literary landscape, such that the landscape has begun to shape itself around it.’ – Vanessa Onwuemezi

‘The White Review consistently does the work we need: bringing the best in global arts and literary culture to its readers, discovering new talent and taking risks other magazines can't bring themselves to take. It’s an incredibly important space for writers, thinkers, readers and artists and it’s one I am proud to celebrate.‘ – Preti Taneja

‘The White Review continues to be a repository for some of the most compelling ideas of our time. In these turbulent times, it's more important than ever that we sustain this crucial space for critical engagement.‘  – Alok Vaid-Menon

‘What it brings to the table is the political authenticity and fervour of a little magazine – intense long-form pieces, voices from the margins, critical conversations.’ — Meena Kandasamy

‘The White Review has long been one of my favourite publications, encouraging work which pushes boundaries and pulses with life.’ — Caleb Azumah Nelson

‘The White Review gives a platform to emerging artists alongside established ones, publishing work that isn’t afraid to take risks or challenge.’ — Sophie Mackintosh

‘Packed with varied, unexpected material in all kinds of forms, The White Review  brings a message from the future: it rises to meet readers’ and writers’ continuing needs to experience art and literature in a sensuous, delectable form; and it gives me the feeling that I have my finger on the pulse.’ — Marina Warner

‘One of the best magazines in Europe.’ — Hans Ulrich Obrist