The Drift #17
177 x 255 mm, 204 pages
New York, US
Three times a year
First published in 2023
Editors: Kiara Barrow and Rebecca Panovka
Art director: John Kazior
Cover art: Ivy Sanders Schneider
Covering culture, politics and literature, bookish lit mag The Drift features ‘new work and new ideas by young writers who haven’t yet been absorbed into the media hivemind’, through a healthy dose of long form writing, cultural criticism, fiction, poetry and a smart (and ‘extremely abbreviated’) reviews section.
In an era of misinformation and in the wake of recent actions by the orange man occupying the Oval Office, this issue examines what ‘conspiracy theories, falsehoods, and hoaxes mean for civic participation’. From Jeffrey Epstein’s emails and what it tells you about the elite, to the rule breaking recipients of the American Welfare system and myths in the cultural sphere, The Drift interrogates the stories societies circulate and sometimes choose to believe. Alongside these essays, the issue also features plenty of new fiction and poetry.
Each issue’s cover is an adaptation of two socialist mags from the 1910s, The Masses and The Liberator, with the original cover reproduced towards the end of the issue (always worth a peek). This issue’s cover, designed by Ivy Sanders Schneider, is based on an image from the January 1923 issue of The Liberator.