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.
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Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day
Previously featured
Simon Williams
What were these fairies called
before we knew of hummingbirds?
Bumblebee moth because of the size?
Reed-nose moth because of the proboscis?
Elizabeth Barton
On Diamond Hill
I didn’t
think of you once
as I climbed
past stunted willows
straggles of gorse
Recent Prose
Recent Haiku
News
Zakia Carpenter-Hall is the Newest IS&T Editing Intern. A Huge Welcome!
Zebra Print
Gridlines project across my body
as I become part of a painting made to scale.
I bloom with tipsy sunflowers, so bright
that I forget their maker was morose.
Word & Image
Emily Coles
clear skies
nightfall,
constellations, spool.
Filmpoems
Brian Johnstone and Steve Smart on Holocaust Memorial Day
Place of Graves
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, a Jewish actress returns to her ancestral shtetl in Eastern Europe to seek evidence of her family’s former life.
Featured Poetry/Prose of the Day
News
Zakia Carpenter-Hall is the Newest IS&T Editing Intern. A Huge Welcome!
Zebra Print
Gridlines project across my body
as I become part of a painting made to scale.
I bloom with tipsy sunflowers, so bright
that I forget their maker was morose.
Word & Image
Emily Coles
clear skies
nightfall,
constellations, spool.
Filmpoems
Brian Johnstone and Steve Smart on Holocaust Memorial Day
Place of Graves
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, a Jewish actress returns to her ancestral shtetl in Eastern Europe to seek evidence of her family’s former life.
Previously featured
Simon Williams
What were these fairies called
before we knew of hummingbirds?
Bumblebee moth because of the size?
Reed-nose moth because of the proboscis?
Elizabeth Barton
On Diamond Hill
I didn’t
think of you once
as I climbed
past stunted willows
straggles of gorse
Recent Prose
Recent Haiku
Picks of the Month
‘A Cry’ by Mariam Saidan is the IS&T Pick of the Month for November 2025. Read and Hear It Here!
‘I have lived this. I believe every woman from Iran who reads her words will feel every line of the poems she writes.’
‘A cry that defies repression and a spirit that refuses to be silenced.’
‘Pivotal’ by Tadhg Carey is the October 2025 Pick of the Month. Congratulations! Revisit the Poem and Hear it Read Here.
‘Beautiful, subtle merging of that moment of sporting destiny and the creative process’
‘This poem captures the momentum of sport, the exhilaration and tension, whilst also almost imperceptibly focuses our attention on the mechanics of writing poetry.’
Read and Hear it Here: Clara-Læïla Laudette’s ‘The purpose’ is our Pick of the Month for September 2025. Huge Congratulations!
‘Quietly devasting poem’
‘Fresh, alive, original, funny’
Reviews
Shannon Clinton-Copeland on Lewis Buxton
“Every poem in Mate Arias is a supporting column in the architecture of a tenderly rendered pantheon to friendship and the myriad forms of platonic love, particularly between men. The pamphlet is made up of twenty-three sonnets, each a vignette of affection, contemplation and memory.”
Chris Hardy on Quentin Cowdry
The poems are carefully structured in regular stanzas, with well-paced, rhythmical lines and deft use of enjambment. The various subjects and themes, which differentiate and unite the work, are built on close observation of the world, of nature and human experience, and how we relate to and respond to it.
In Praise of … Mat Riches on Robin Houghton
Given how much she does for the poetry community—the Planet Podcast series with Peter Kenny, her monthly submissions newsletter, her blog posts, her books on getting published, launching a publisher with other folks, etc., it’s heartwarming to see the attention being placed back on Robin’s writing.