November 12, 2012

We launched Warscapes one year ago this week, unveiling the magazine at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City with a screening of the classic 1966 film by Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers, followed by a discussion with ex-militant turned writer Saadi Yacef, whose prison memoir, the basis for the film, was excerpted in a first-ever English translation in our launch issue. It was a rare alignment of stars that made such an event possible, and it flashed us an unambiguous early look at the synergistic potential of Warscapes at its best as we embarked on our mission of highlighting conflicts from the past fifty years, especially those bearing the burdens of extraordinarily complicated colonial legacies, seeking insight from art. Our launch issue also included literature from Cambodia and Congo, graphic novel from Palestine, reportage from Afghanistan and poetry from Somalia.

Since then, Warscapes has had the honor over the last year of publishing great work from some 40 hot and cold conflicts worldwide. We would like to thank all of our fantastic writers, photographers and artists – all of whom have contributed work without compensation, purely out of enthusiasm for a unique project. In addition, we would like to thank our diverse and incredibly talented Advisory Board, our growing team of editors and interns, and most of all our readers – from some 180 countries – who have come to Warscapes over and over for our in-depth exploration of current conflicts through the diverse lenses of literature, reportage, art, photography, book & film reviews, op-eds and our retrospectives on special topics. None of this would be possible without the talented designers and programmers involved in creating, developing and maintaining the site.

We have been moved and humbled by the genuine faith among all those involved in the communal and collaborative effort to bring evocative, political and often arresting work that does not find space in mainstream media. Going forward, we are intensifying efforts to find institutional funding, and we are enthusiastically seeking collaborations: financial, editorial, artistic and inspirational.

Cheers, thank you all, and stay tuned for an exciting second year at Warscapes magazine!

The Editors