Literary magazine the White Review will not be published “for an indefinite period” according to a statement from its board.
This comes after the not-for-profit journal’s applications for funding were rejected by Arts Council England for three consecutive years. The charity relied on this funding for “a substantial portion of its annual budget” between 2011-2021, read the statement.
“Despite our best efforts, the associated effects of the cost of living crisis and the increase in production costs, in tandem with reduced funding, has meant that the White Review has not been able to publish a print issue since No 33 in June 2022,” the board said.
Outgoing editors Rosanna Mclaughlin, Izabella Scott and Skye Arundhati Thomas will work on one final project – an anthology of new writing in translation, funded by the Jan Michalski Foundation – before the magazine goes “on hiatus”.
The board of trustees “is now embarking on a period of consultation on the magazine’s future, with a further announcement to follow … In the meantime, we would like to thank our very talented staff, writers and artists, past and present.”
The White Review was founded in 2011 by writer and editor Benjamin Eastham and Fitzcarraldo publisher Jacques Testard with the aim of being “a space for a new generation to express itself unconstrained by form, subject or genre”. Since then, it has featured contributions from writers and artists including Paul Murray, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Sally Rooney and Olga Tokarczuk.
Authors and publishers expressed their sadness at the news on social media. Bestselling author of We Need to Talk About Money Otegha Uwagba tweeted that The White Review has “been a kingmaker for some of the best literary authors working today.
“How sad to think of the loss to literature, the work that will never see the light of day because the philistines who pass for our government don’t see value in the arts,” she added.
Meanwhile Granta best young British novelist Sophie Mackintosh also shared her dismay. “The White Review was so vital to nurturing my career as a writer and to so many others too,” she tweeted. “The state of the arts in the UK feels increasingly bleak.”
