The Drift #18
176 x 254 mm, 180 pages
New York, US
Triannual
First published in 2023
Editors: Kiara Barrow & 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.
This issue of The Drift probes for an alternative political reality, searching for ways to overcome the whims of capital and elite bureaucrats: ‘The quest for an alternative, any alternative, to a social order at once desiccated and calcified,’ as the editorial team assert. Inside, two longform features delve into avenues of change—for better and worse—through two opposing ideological perspectives. Piper French applauds the recent success of the New York City Democrats, through the ascension of Zohran Mamdani, examining the question of maintaining their ‘radical priorities’ in office; and Brian Goodman leans on experience to condemn Viktor Orbán’s post-liberal Hungary, warning that despite Orbán’s recent defeat he should not be underestimated.
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 November 1920 issue of The Liberator.