Awake, arise, or be forever fallen

The latest edition of the White Review was launched at Foyles yesterday evening and long into the night. The magazine is a vehicle for new writers, supported by the work of and interviews with established authors and artists. This quarter’s edition features a short story by Deborah Levy, a discursive interview with Ahdaf Soueif and poems by the ever-iconoclastic Michael Horowitz.

Each piece challenges present anxieties, which is no bad thing. There is a tendency in Britain to see everything through the prism of decline. This crushes the spirit and impedes growth (in every sense of the term). The magazine’s rousing editorial shakes this culture of exhaustion:

‘We must not allow ourselves the indulgence of timidity, we must shake off any listlessness, and we must refuse to be austere. Instead we must make, write, argue, dream, paint and act in the faith that creativity is commensurate with progress, and that we are responsible for our futures.