Welcome to Bending The Arc
A Leader Piece from the Editors
Welcome to Bending The Arc: A Thrutopia Magazine!
Each edition of this magazine explores ways through to positive futures, in a cycle of pieces in different genres and styles by writers from assorted backgrounds and writing traditions.
Thrutopian work aims to write thriving, desirable futures into being. We tackle the dark and difficult challenges of the present day in a spirit of stubborn optimism. Bending The Arc gathers up poems, stories, essays and interviews about tangible change, walking with our readers along the challenging path from here and now to a hopeful, liveable tomorrow.
From 22nd April, you’ll receive a daily post for a fortnight. Then we’ll go quiet for a few months until the next edition. How you read Bending The Arc is up to you – one a day, as they’re delivered by email, or in batches as a weekend treat. The full magazine will always be available on the website.
This inaugural edition features the founders of the thrutopian movement, academic Rupert Read and bestselling author Manda Scott; we bring together poets Jane Burn, Angela Cleland and Clare Whistler; we interview award-winning science fiction author Emma Newman and hear from sustainability academic and publisher Denise Baden – and many more. We showcase writing from the editorial team, offering examples of this new genre in poetry and prose, crafted from what we learned together on a six-month thrutopian study course.
Our aim is for Bending The Arc to become a toolkit full of practical solutions and creative inspirations, a space for learning and sharing.
Look out for the first piece in our launch edition, arriving on Earth Day, 22nd April 2025!
The Editors
Laura Baggaley, Ilse Pedler, Katherine Stansfield, Hilary Watson & Alice Willitts
To find out more about how Bending The Arc came into being, click here
Wishing you all the very best with your wonderful venture xxx
I've never heard the term "thrutopia" but it immediately made sense to me, as I like to think about Endings and different ways we reconcile ourselves to them. I am excited to see where this goes!