Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries
It’s been a year since the current editorial team took responsibility for The Manchester Review, and we are delighted to present Issue 27. This issue blends some familiar names with plenty of new faces, and as is tradition for the Review is comprised of different styles across fiction and poetry. The pieces are presented alongside images, courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery, that show impressions of our city from across the past two centuries.
In an uncertain world, we find ourselves asking what role literature may play, beyond simple enjoyment. With many of our peers across the Atlantic facing funding cuts and other kinds of hostility in the last year, this is a question many of us who believe in the power – and social importance of – the creative arts have been asking ourselves perhaps more than ever before. There are no easy answers. At this year’s London Book Fair, Monica Ali confessed that she often struggles with such questions. And yet, literature has above all else this important quality: it creates a space where things can be shared that may otherwise be neglected, or forgotten. Beautiful things, yes; but painful things, too. As Issue 27 contributor Graham Clifford articulates it in his poem, ‘End-Egg-Grief’:
I need solace
possibly in a new compound word—
the path shinrin-yoku offers,
the calm acceptance weltschmerz brings
because the hurt is known,
because the grief is shared.
The Manchester Review will return towards the end of this year with another issue containing the best in contemporary literature from home and abroad. Please keep an eye on our website and social media channels for news of submission window periods. We will continue to review vital new art and culture, and are always open to your reviews and review pitches.