
The Vanishing

'Extinction Cabinet' by Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick. From ‘Truppe Fledermaus: 100 Stories of the Drowning World'.
We are living in an age of loss: the sixth mass extinction. Following the shocking report that the planet has lost half its wildlife in the past 40 years, we bring you ‘The Vanishing’. In this section we seek responses not only to extinction – the deaths of entire species – but to the quieter extirpations, losses and disappearances that are steadily stripping our world of its complexity and beauty. How do we, as writers and artists, stay human during such times?


The Lestrygonians
Gregory Norminton
1st May, 2023
In our fourth taster from our new issue, Dark Kitchen:, novelist Gregory Norminton serves up a deliciously dark short story about an exclusive dining club that is soon to have a taste of its own medicine. Menu illustrated by Graeme Walker.

Extinction is Loneliness
Alexa Firmenich
6th July, 2022
Alexa Firmenich plunges us into the Earth's 'staggering bedlam' of complex and symbiotic relationships and asks what happens when they disappear?

Beast Dreaming
Nicholas
25th August, 2021
Biologist Nicholas Wilkinson had never seen a living saola. And then the dilemma about saving this endangered antelope from extinction came into his dreams.

Will the Whales Inherit the Earth?
Rupert Read
7th April, 2021
For The Vanishing series, Rupert Read considers the future of human societies , following in the wake of whales. With artworks by Angela Cockayne.

The Rhino More Fortunate
Kim Schnuelle
4th March, 2020
The latest in our The Vanishing series, Kim Schnuelle tells the tale of three rhinoceros encounters and reflects on the true meaning of 'extinction'

Pigeons of Perwa Waterfall
Vinit Agarwal
9th December, 2019
Today in 'The Vanishing', Vinit Agarwal merges fiction with reality as he recounts a childhood tale set within the Koel Karo anti-dam protest site in Jharkhand, India.



No Longer
Eric Nicholson
9th January, 2019
Our series on 'The Vanishing' continues with a poem by Eric Nicholson, with an image by Beatrice Forshall

Where are the Bees Now?
Rosamund Portus
12th December, 2018
Our new section 'The Vanishing' continues with Rosamund Portus on artistic responses to the disappearance of bees.

Disappearing Acts
Charlotte Du Cann
5th December, 2018
For The Vanishing series, Charlotte Du Cann considers the 'right' response to Earth's disappearances, through the lens of four artists and photographers.