Taking a break, leaning on our walking sticks or trekking poles, or unlacing our boots by the warming fire, we can report that the first stage of the Dark Mountain expedition has reached its destination.

We can report, to be specific, two things which have only happened because Dark Mountaineers across the world have made them happen. Firstly, we have reached our fundraising target for the production of issue one of Dark Mountain. We have pre-sold almost 100 journals, and two very generous private donations made up the difference. Thank you to everyone for making this happen; it’s a great example of how co-operation and mutual commitment can drive a project forward. We’re going to go on pre-selling journals through the Indiegogo site until publication day, so it’s by no means too late to reserve one if you would like to.

Secondly, the meat: the first issue of Dark Mountain has been compiled, edited and sent to our typesetters at Bracketpress. We’re really genuinely excited by this. It has thrown up a lot of surprises for us, and of the best kind; in particular, we have come across writers and artists we had never heard of before, some of whom have not yet been published anywhere else. We think that what they have produced makes up a brilliant first collection of Uncivilised work, and a real pointer to the possible direction that we should move in next. Or, as we put it in our editorial:

This is the voice of the megaphone: the words that would be unacceptable in civilised conversation, the call to cut through the old tales which bind our understanding and to rediscover those which can ground us in the realities of the only world we ever had. If the manifesto represented the start of an expedition into the unknown, this volume represents the establishment of a base camp in the foothills of some dark and uncharted range.

The manifesto will be launched at the Dark Mountain Festival in May, which is also shaping up to be very exciting; more details on that in the next month or so when he have drawn breath and rested. Below, meanwhile is a sneak preview of the contents page of Dark Mountain, with links to some of the writers and artists we are publishing.

Salutations to all who have walked this distance with us. The first signs are promising; the land is fertile, the walking is good, and the horizon is full of promise and beauty.

dark mountain: issue one