Who We Are
Kole Fulmine (Founding Editor) is a writer and researcher based in London. He is a Churchill Fellow and Queen Mary's University graduate. He completed his creative writing PhD on trans athletes in 2025. He's also the founder of Queer Running Club, co-founder of Pecs Education and the queer movement platform BEND.
Louis Shankar (Founding Editor) is a writer, researcher, editor and teacher based in East London. They hold an MA in writing from the Royal College of Art and a PhD in the History of Art from UCL. Their writing focuses on queer cultural activism, queer art history, and psychoanalysis, with an emphasis on American art in the 1980s and early ‘90s, and contemporary trans* and non binary artistic production. Their writing has been published by Sticky Fingers and Tissue, in Vittles, Dirty Furniture, Polyester, and elsewhere.
John Philip Sage (Designer) is a graphic designer and researcher based in New York. They co-run spreeeng, a graphic design cooperative practice, with Carlos Romo-Melgar, Héloïse d’Almeida, and Roxy Zeiher. They design exhibitions, publications, workshops, and other visual outlets, collaborating with institutions such as Tate, V&A, Design Museum, Prestel Publishing and White Cube. In their research they explore the relationship between publishing, performance, language, and typography, and they have developed several workshop methodologies around text activation, positionality and non-linear writing. They have been a lecturer at Kingston University and Camberwell College of Arts, and they are currently an associate member and tutor at STORE Projects. They have also participated in art residencies at Fabra i Coats (Barcelona) and Balmaceda Arte Joven (Santiago de Chile).
Benoît Loiseau (Founding Editor) is a writer and critic based primarily in London. He regularly contributes to international newspapers and magazines including Art Monthly, The Guardian, Frieze, The New York Times and The White Review. Previously, he was an editor at Sleek Magazine in Berlin, a culture correspondent in Mexico City, and co-founding editor of arts and politics zine …ment. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh where he has taught Visual Culture and French Literature. He also mentors aspiring writers at queer youth charity AKT.
Design
Spanish-born, London-based graphic designer John Philip Sage is responsible for developing the graphic identity of The BitterSweet Review. Sage has used the typeface “Kéroine”, designed by Amsterdam and Berlin-based Studio Charlotte Rohde. The magazine’s logo – a one-eyed monstrous figure – references the perennial vine celastrus scandens – commonly known as bittersweet – popular in witchcraft for its protective quality against the evil eye.Friends & Contributors
Contributors include Amelia Abraham (UK); Amrou Al-Kadhi (UK), Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (US); Biogal (UK); John Booth (UK); Adrian Bridget (UK); Dynasty Handbag (US); Donna Marcus Duke (UK); Cash Frances (UK); Emma Jane Gomis (US/ES); Jordan Martin Hell (US); Kasra Jalilipour (IR); Tarek Lakhrissi (FR); Kim Hyun tr. Archana Madhavan (KO); Suzan Cooper & Chris Kraus (US); Greer Lankton (US); Daniel M. Lavery (US); Laura Lynes (UK); Maz Murray (UK); D Mortimer (UK); Spyros Rennt (GR/DE); Roberto Rodriguez (US); Barbara Sanchez-Kane (ME); Vicky Spratt (UK); Diamond Stingily (US); Michelle Tea (US); Isabel Waidner (UK); Gray Wielebinski (US/UK) and Francis Whorrall-Campbell (UK).