Idle Ink was an online publisher of short stories, poetry, essays and anything curious.
Idle Ink was founded by Jen Farr in 2017, when she wanted to be involved in an upcoming creators’ fair but had nothing to sell. When she approached the organiser with claims of being an experienced zine-maker he believed her, and she was promptly given a table at the event. She convinced a few friends to contribute short stories and her then-boyfriend (now husband) to design a cover, and within a few weeks she had herself a completed zine.
She sold a few copies at the creators’ fair and not too long afterwards created a second issue, this time advertising online for contributors from further afield. Over the next few months she sold both issues at a string of zine fairs across the North of England, where she met other creatives and learnt about the power of collaboration.
In 2018, she moved Idle Ink online in order to collaborate with a wider range of writers and reach a larger audience. It was a surprise success, and over the next eighteen months the website featured work from almost one hundred writers and poets from all over the world, from Yorkshire to Brazil and everywhere in between.
In 2020, after a brief hiatus, she pushed Idle Ink into its third incarnation: an online magazine featuring short stories, reviews, articles, personal essays and anything curious.
In 2022, she launched the Idle Ink Podcast as an excuse to chat with writers whose work she’d previously published in Idle Ink, and to get to know them as people, not just as writers.
Idle Ink embraced art – the genre fiction that was too weird to be published anywhere else, articles that poked fun at modern life, challenging personal essays, book/film/TV show reviews full of unpopular opinions. If it was strange and questionable, it would find a home with Idle Ink.
Jen Farr 