News from Nowhere is a utopian novel written by British author William Morris. Morris was a founding member of the Socialist League, an organization founded in 1885 on the tenets of socialism, a political and economic ideology that advocates for property and natural resources to be owned and regulated by the community or state, rather than private individuals.
In News from Nowhere, the narrator of the book is transported from 19th- to 21st-century England. Society has changed vastly due to a revolution that resulted in a totally socialist society. The narrator is escorted around England, with various characters showing and teaching him about the health and happiness socialism has made possible for all citizens. In the end, the narrator realizes his experience was merely a dream, but is still affected strongly by what he has experienced.
Many scholars saw the novel as a libertarian socialist response to Bellamy's Looking Backward, an earlier novel which advocated for so-called "state socialism." It was first published in serial form in the Commonweal journal beginning in 1890.
The work has been referenced by many other writers and artists since its publication, especially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. For example, folk singer Leon Rosselson released a song called "Bringing the News from Nowhere" in 1986, Korean artists Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho created a collaborative exhibition titled "News from Nowhere" in 2012, and an adaptation of the novel into a radio play was released on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.
