This issue of Litro explores a theme close to Litro’s heart, indeed essential to our very genesis: travel and adventure. Perhaps you don’t think of your daily commute in such terms but Galician writer Luisa Castro manages to take a chair on a journey more intrepid than one might usually with such an item. Watch out for the twists in the Barking line; you never know what they might inspire.

Other writers in this issue range far and wide. Nikesh Shukla returns, this time with a sideswipe at tourist culture as embodied in that fundamentally decadent trip, the safari. Laura Martz tackles drop-out culture in 1980s Amsterdam and Nicholas Hogg shows us a decent southern states man, swerving closer than he expected to the Mexican border, and other borders too.

We unveil works by a couple of stars too: celebrated Israeli writer Etgar Keret gives us another lonely man who turns his daily cafe breakfast into a chance to commune with all kinds of other mistaken souls – providing a sparky start to your day, too, we hope. From the other side of the world, eminent New Zealand poet CK Stead wrote ‘Auckland’, reaching back in time as well as space. And more poetry from English poet Charlie Druce also offers brief adventures in head-on encounters with animals.

Litro Classics may turn into a regular slot: we couldn’t resist including a chapter from that model adventurer Lemuel Gulliver ‘s journals to round off our compendium. This is where he meets a new race neither tiny nor gigantic, but horselike and rather intelligent… We hope you find it all strange enough to want to seek out more Swift, and indeed more adventure of all sorts. And finally, remember to look out for our August issue, whose special guest editor is a big name in the film world.

Sophie Lewis & Dena Ziari