A Christmas Message from Elsewhere

Dear Fellow Travellers,

As Christmas approaches and 2016 draws to a close, we are about to take a little bit of time out from our continuing journeys to Elsewhere and reflect on the year that is about to end. For many people around the world, this has not been a good year, and with sadness and anger we reflect on our capacity as humans to do harm to one another. At the same time, out of so many terrible events always come stories of resistance, defiance and hope, and it is in that spirit that we have to look forward. 

Over the past year, both of us have been thinking a lot about how what we do – in our personal life, our work and with the journal – can make a positive difference, in however small a way, to the challenges we are faced with. Sometimes it feels like art, literature and culture in general are inadequate in their response to great tragedy, but at the same time, these things can all play a vital role in furthering understanding, communication and forging links across borders, boundaries and those other things that divide us.

It is to this end we have been considering the future of Elsewhere as we have reached the end of the initial four-edition cycle that we tentatively mapped out ahead of our crowdfunding campaign almost two years ago. We are about to take a couple of weeks off, and then in January we will be back with an announcement of what we have planned for the journal in 2017, in print and online. It has been a rewarding and challenging couple of years, but we have loved the work and the sense of community that surrounds the project.

There is more to come. Thanks for all your support up to now,

Paul & Julia
Berlin & Hamburg, Christmas 2016