Erotic Review 2
Delivered to Stack subscribers in
Nov 2024
The Erotic Review had become an online-only magazine, until editor and publisher Lucy Roeber decided to bring it back into print as a big, beautiful volume exploring the many meanings of desire. We delivered this second issue of the rejuvenated magazine to our subscribers in November 2024.
Name
Lucy Roeber
Job title
Editor and publisher
What is the Erotic Review?
A biannual literary and art journal that explores desire through essays, short stories, reviews, poetry and art.
What makes it different to the rest?
There isn’t really a direct competitor; we are the only literary and art journal that focuses on desire in English. We are different to other journals because we have complete editorial independence and work as a creative collaboration with Studio Frith, my fellow editor, Saskia Vogel, and a different guest art curator for each issue. This allows us to shift the gaze geographically and culturally.
Who makes the Erotic Review?
It is litho-printed by die Keure in Bruges, Belgium, on Munken paper.
Who reads it?
The majority of our audience is open, curious, city-based, design-led, readers of 25-40. Our main subscription areas are the UK, the US and Europe.
Why do you work in magazines?
I started my editorial career in magazines and I have always gravitated to them because they can be both more responsive and experimental. I really believe that independent magazines can and do reframe the cultural conversation. I believe that there is no better place than magazines to reframe the culture around desire. In print we are unlimited by the increasing and hypocritical morality of the digital world when it comes to the erotic, and are able to create an intimate platform to explore our common humanity through art.
Aside from the magazine, what else are you involved in?
I am a writer when I have time to be and write essays and short stories – I’ve had work published in the TLS and the Sunday Times recently. I’ve also just started to speak more at events like literary festivals and events like magCulture Live. I’m currently on my way to the Asmar/Addis Literary Festival (In Exile) where I’m giving a talk on Publishing the Erotic: A Story of Fear and Longing. We are also starting a series of literary salons linked to the writing and ideas in the magazine in 2025 – there has been such a wonderful response from our readers.
What would you change about the Erotic Review if you could?
Ha! Ask me that in three years, I’m still in the honeymoon phase.
Where do you see the Erotic Review in five years?
I see the Erotic Review as the heart of a cultural movement that explores our desires through art and writing. I would like us to be a global brand where cultural collaborations can happen – we are already involved in making a short documentary about sex work and spirituality from the work in the magazine and possibly a film. I see us hosting and collaborating on events for a community of interested and open people who can come, listen and discuss ideas around sex work, pornography, incels, 4B, anything. Our erotic lives are central to our being and there is so much to explore. And I would like to create a digital space where people have a chance to submit their own work, even starting an annual prize for photography and writing. And I’d love to have a book imprint for beautiful, illustrated work that explores desire too.
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