Ink Sweat & Tears is a UK based webzine which publishes and reviews poetry, prose, prose-poetry, word & image pieces and everything in between. Our tastes are eclectic and magpie-like and we aim to publish something new every day.

We try to keep waiting-time short, but because of increased submissions, the current waiting time between submission and publication is around twelve weeks.

If you have come here looking for more information on our ‘Uprising & Resistance’ Project in conjunction with Spread the Word and Black Beyond Data, please go here.

IS&T Shop

Buy Ink Sweat & Tears Publishing books and pamphlets here.

Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day

Martin Figura for Mental Health Awareness Week

Children in care do not have much of a voice, they often accept whatever is given and do not dare to speak up.

Julie Stevens for Mental Health Awareness Week

Are these the words you want me to say
about how my day became a raging river
crashing through my bones?

Fianna Russell Dodwell for Mental Health Awareness Week

I’ll tell you a bedtime story . . .

William Manning for Mental Health Awareness Week

My room is infested with bedbugs
I’m covered in bites, not love bites

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

Previously featured

Opeyemi Oluwayomi

They are piercing knife between
the city, detaching the body from the head,
& squeezing the blood out of the flesh,
so there can be an end to what hasn’t begun.

read more

Heather Walker

Felicity stepped off the edge of the path and walked into the water. Shock hit her as she sank. The water was cold and slimy with green algae, but between her splashing she saw Jesus peddling the little boat towards her.

read more

Recent Prose

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

Cheryl Snell

I am all hair, glittering with diamond-glass. A forehead streaked with blood, rubies and roses crisscrossing the tangerine flaps of a ripped collar.

Sarah Thorne

The darkening sky skids past at sixty miles an hour. My eyes are keeping a vigil over the dead fringes of tarmac either side of the road as I drive . . .

Arlene Jackson

Hello Tamara, it’s lovely to hear your voice stretching out across the Atlantic, from your eco pod of wellness into my quiet space, where things are not so well today. But it is today. New and fresh.

Rebecca Parfitt

And when the snake finished, the cow turned and licked the snake’s head, tender, like a mother to
her newborn. The snake slipped away, disappeared into the undergrowth.

Recent Haiku

Chen-ou Liu on International Haiku Poetry Day

end-of-day catch
our wicker basket full
of salmon sunset

Deborah Karl-Brandt

With every book I sell, with every piece of clothing I give away . . .

Clare Bryden

how do I begin?

R.C. Thomas

The Universe dreamed I’d come to its restaurant. I needed to pass the time before my train home.

Anthony Lusardi

the highway asphalt. reeks of exhaust and burnt rubber. the cars and trucks go by. the sun boiling and you rotting.

News

Word & Image

Filmpoems

Ofem Ubi

Ofem Ubi

ANY LAST WORDS.
(Chapter 3 of film Back on Home Soil)

A friend says, grief leaves everyone behind
She ruminates on her words and goes grief leaves no one behind
It shows in the way grief leaves a fraction in memory…

read more

Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day

Martin Figura for Mental Health Awareness Week

Children in care do not have much of a voice, they often accept whatever is given and do not dare to speak up.

Julie Stevens for Mental Health Awareness Week

Are these the words you want me to say
about how my day became a raging river
crashing through my bones?

Fianna Russell Dodwell for Mental Health Awareness Week

I’ll tell you a bedtime story . . .

William Manning for Mental Health Awareness Week

My room is infested with bedbugs
I’m covered in bites, not love bites

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

News

Word & Image

Filmpoems

Ofem Ubi

Ofem Ubi

ANY LAST WORDS.
(Chapter 3 of film Back on Home Soil)

A friend says, grief leaves everyone behind
She ruminates on her words and goes grief leaves no one behind
It shows in the way grief leaves a fraction in memory…

read more

Previously featured

Opeyemi Oluwayomi

They are piercing knife between
the city, detaching the body from the head,
& squeezing the blood out of the flesh,
so there can be an end to what hasn’t begun.

read more

Heather Walker

Felicity stepped off the edge of the path and walked into the water. Shock hit her as she sank. The water was cold and slimy with green algae, but between her splashing she saw Jesus peddling the little boat towards her.

read more

Recent Prose

Stephanie Aspin on ‘Why Words Help’ for Mental Health Awareness Week

Writing is both a way of making life more liveable and of making ourselves more whole. Words have a being-ness: when we write poetry, we tap into a network of resonances.

Cheryl Snell

I am all hair, glittering with diamond-glass. A forehead streaked with blood, rubies and roses crisscrossing the tangerine flaps of a ripped collar.

Sarah Thorne

The darkening sky skids past at sixty miles an hour. My eyes are keeping a vigil over the dead fringes of tarmac either side of the road as I drive . . .

Arlene Jackson

Hello Tamara, it’s lovely to hear your voice stretching out across the Atlantic, from your eco pod of wellness into my quiet space, where things are not so well today. But it is today. New and fresh.

Rebecca Parfitt

And when the snake finished, the cow turned and licked the snake’s head, tender, like a mother to
her newborn. The snake slipped away, disappeared into the undergrowth.

Recent Haiku

Chen-ou Liu on International Haiku Poetry Day

end-of-day catch
our wicker basket full
of salmon sunset

Deborah Karl-Brandt

With every book I sell, with every piece of clothing I give away . . .

Clare Bryden

how do I begin?

R.C. Thomas

The Universe dreamed I’d come to its restaurant. I needed to pass the time before my train home.

Anthony Lusardi

the highway asphalt. reeks of exhaust and burnt rubber. the cars and trucks go by. the sun boiling and you rotting.

Picks of the Month

Reviews