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Jennifer Hensey discusses how nostalgia romanticises submission, turning the tradwife into an aesthetic of comfort and control.

As the world tilts into economic freefall, social exhaustion and climate crisis, we start to reach backwards. Not because the past was better, but because the future feels like it’s been cancelled.

Inside the walls of Dagenham Library in East London, I found myself surrounded by writers, readers, and creatives, all gathered in celebration of the written word and the magazine born from their shared passion.

Just a week after getting my driver’s license, I was in a car accident. What lodged itself most stubbornly in my mind wasn’t the impact – not the deployment of the airbags or the sound of breaking metal – but rather the clothes I was wearing.

Writer Louie Tunstall crafts a poem about how people romanticise experiences during their youth, and whether that excitement lasts.

Writer Alberta N'Guessan writes a poem about identity, colonialism and strength to celebrate Black History Month.

Autumn circulates into our systems like a prescription medicine we never remember taking, side effects including: vertigo, excessive nostalgia, and a dulled taste for sweetness.

Writer Noa Cobo Ribas creates a poem from magazine cut-outs.

Writer Zarah Hashim discusses lust, love and heartbreak in this prose piece accompanied by a poem.

While our pricey seminars become places of roaring anti-capitalist sentiments, we go back to our over-priced London houses/flats/student accommodations and spasmodically embrace our phones - a device harbouring capitalist vices. Micro-trends, endless advertisements, and dystopian feeds that broadcast genocide and celebrity or influencer opulence simultaneously.