The Erotic Review, Issue 1

The legendary Erotic Review is relaunching in print as a covetable art and literary journal, a platform for exploring desire as a lens on our common humanity—a new chapter in its 30-year history. Under the editorship of Lucy Roeber, deputy editor, Saskia Vogel, and designed by Studio Frith.

Published three times a year, the new Erotic Review has been produced for an intelligent contemporary audience, to reflect a society that is now much more curious, experimental and open about the desires that drive us. After 15 years of being solely available online, Erotic Review is now a gorgeous, collectible, limited edition object to keep on your bookshelf.

Showcasing new poetry and essays by leading writers, each issue will also be curated by a different art editor – the first with Fatos Ustek, curator of the 2023 Frieze sculpture park. The star-studded launch issue features writers from around the world, celebrated names and vibrant new voices.

Michel Faber muses on the muse, Cecilie Lind wrestles with the girl beast, Sam Ashby remembers a shuttered BDSM club in the Netherlands, Vijay Khurana considers the elision of sex in contemporary British fiction and Lucy Roeber gets swept away by Romance fiction. Cynan Jones takes us on a time-worn couple’s holiday in Greece, Rebecca Rukeyser plumbs the Goon Cave, Chika Unigwe dreams of a life that wasn’t, and Cason Sharpe finds grace in the loos of a Canadian shopping mall. Illustrator Judy Moore explores the erotic potential of actress Kathy Bates in a visual essay. With poetry by Sara Martin, Eliot Duncan, and Matsuo Takahashi, and flash pieces by Lauren John Joseph and Jessica J Lee.

Featuring performance art by Esben Kjaer, stills from Sin Wai Kin’s short film Dreaming the End, and a collection of drawing, performance and poetry by Florence Peake.