Stichting European Review of Books

The European Review of Books is a magazine of culture and ideas, in print and online, in English and in a writer’s own tongue. We publish book-length issues three times a year, next to digital-only and newsletter-only pieces. In our pages, you’ll find many kinds of writing: travelogue, fiction, profile, parody, poem, come what may. But we champion the essay, because a good essay is the enemy of the airy platitude, the antidote to the measly « opinion ». We’re tired of opinion; Our mission is to thicken the Europe an intellectual atmosphere.

In the spring of 2021, we launched a crowdfunding campaign with future contributors like Ali Smith, Adania Shibli, David Mitchell, and Rem Koolhaas helping to spread the word. We raised a spectacular €94.000 from 852 supporters. With those funds, we commissioned early contributors, created our first issue and built our online platform. Issue One appeared in June 2022, and the print edition (3800 copies) soon sold out.

Soon after, Studio Europa Maastricht became our founding partner, supporting us with a total of €120.000 paid out over three years. This allowed us to start thinking properly about a future for our endeavor. In December of 2022, funding partner Stichting Democratie en Media made a donation of €90.000, and offers continuing organizational support. Issue Two launched in early January of 2023, Issue Three in late April of that same year, and Issue Four in November. ERBs are sold in more than 250 shops in 19 different countries around the world, and in our webshop.

In our first year and a half, we produced important, pathbreaking work by 90+ (paid) contributors with ties to 20+ countries. We continue to build a robust international network of writers, translators, thinkers and readers. With the ERB, we want to create an enduring, independent institution for the European cultural and intellectual sphere – there is a need for it, and an audience. Our venture was covered in Italy (Il Foglio, Corriere della Sera), in Belgium (De Standaard), in Spain (El Confidencial), in the Netherlands (NRC, Trouw), in Ireland (Irish Times), in the UK (Financial Times), in Germany (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Die Welt), in France (Le Monde, Le Grand Continent), in Austria (Die Presse), in the US (n+1) and more. We’ve won three awards so far – two for our design, and one for our writing.

We aim to become a financially sustainable organization within four years, and we project we'll reach that point with about 3500 subscribers, supplemented with income from issue sales and other revenue streams. We need financial help to tide us over to that point: during those years, we need to keep paying our contributors reasonable fees and launch serious marketing efforts to reach a bigger audience. But we also need to explore ways to make our content more accessible (through audio, for example) and to diversify our revenue streams (by publishing books, selling exclusive merchandise, expanding our writing programs for universities) that would secure our sustainability and independence in the future.

We are a stichting: a non-profit under Dutch law.