In selecting the overarching theme for this issue, the Editors were conscious of the grotesque assertions of despotic force witnessed in a number of global polities in recent years, and the imperilled position in which writers and other citizens of conscience have consequently found themselves.

As this issue also explores, across the global North – where the freedom of the Fourth Estate has long been assumed, perhaps too blithely, as unassailable – the capacity and even at times the willingness of “legacy media” outlets to hold power to account have been eroded – declining dramatically under the relentless assault of Big Tech, social media and powerful political lobbies; and generating everywhere the fear and distrust that increasing numbers of citizens harbour towards traditional media institutions.

In contrast, The Genocide Issue marks an oppositional intervention at this moment of urgent civilizational significance – a focussed literary and ethical response to the increasing barbarity of modern warfare, as practiced and conceived by a number of state actors, including Israel and Russia.

This daring, resonant issue amounts to an essential defence of humanity and literature in an age of seemingly perpetual crisis – marked by mounting levels of degradation and violence that too often seem irreparable and systemic.

Pitched against despair, with its wide variety of contributions, The Genocide Issue grants active meaning to the values of clarity and critique, while also celebrating the enduring radicalism and vitality of the literary act.