The White Review 22 features a roundtable discussion on the modern university. Following on from the recent strike action staged by university staff and students against cuts to pensions, our panel discusses marketisation, workers’ rights, academic vocation and campus sexual harassment.

We present an essay on Berghain, techno and queer identity by Julia Bell, a luminous piece by Quinn Latimer exploring the literary and political symbolism of women on fire, and an essay by Scholastique Mukasonga (translated by Melanie Mauthner) on the Rukarara River as a memory and a symbol. We are delighted to present an interview with Jenny Offill on climate change, the writing process and her famous phrase ‘art monster’, alongside wide-ranging conversations with the poet Danez Smith and artist Kerstin Brätsch.

We’re excited to publish a portfolio of poems by Lucy Mercer, winner of the inaugural White Review Poet’s Prize, alongside poetry by John McCullough and Alex Bell. We present dystopian fiction by Maria Hummer, which explores love in a virtual reality world, and the strange and disturbing ‘Reunion’ by Vera Giaconi (translated by Megan McDowell), alongside an extract from Chloe Aridjis’s hotly anticipated forthcoming novel Sea Monsters. Series of artworks are presented from Andrea Büttner and Barbara Kasten.