A Chat with Forge Zine

For our latest newsletter, we chatted with E. Hartley Smith, Editor and Founder of Forge Zine, all about lockdown creativity and a future that is not so bleak…

*What’s Forge Zone’s origins story and what is it doing now? What made you start it? 

When I was studying at York St John University, a few friends and I decided that the publications and magazines that we were submitting to all looked amazingly professional and pristine, which worked very well for them. We wanted to create something which had a more chaotic and more artistic feel to it. Forge Zine was created to look like a rather stereotypical school book, as some of us longed for the days of ripped school pages and genital doodles to feature in our workbooks again! Initially we wished to have a place we could publish outrageous things without having to censor our creativity. It’s just taken off from there. We go through phases of having themed issues but it is by no means a hard and fast rule. We know and appreciate that some people prefer themes to insight creativity for the submission, which is why we try to give one with every submission opening, but we do accept submissions which do not adhere to the suggested theme.

What’s your ethos behind Forge? What’s your stance on publishing political pieces in such a divided world?

Our ethos is primarily based on fun! We just want artists, authors, poets and all creative types to just enjoy their work and enjoy viewing it as a published piece. We promote eco-friendliness as well as kindness to all. Forge Zine has also been known to maybe poke fun at those in the limelight in a friendly and non-threatening way! As for politics we as a Zine try to keep out of it. I’m sure our personal views seep into the Zine from time to time but we are not against publishing anything political as long as it is not discriminating in any way.

How do you coordinate your editorial pieces? How do you choose what to publish? 

I always have fun writing our editorials. I see it as a way to try and get my voice over to our readers and let them know that it’s just a bit of fun! My co-founder, who has just set up his very own Acid Bath Publications, and I take it in turns to write the editorial. Sometimes one of us is in the mood so we do it and have a ‘haha beat you to it moment’! We’re rather relaxed about things like that but it seems to be working for us so far so I see no reason to change that.

Due to the current size of our Zine much of the decision lies on the size of the piece submitted, assuming that it is not discriminative in any way. Then we choose by the amount of short stories, poems and artwork submitted. We try to keep the balance as even as possible but sometimes more artwork is submitted than writing so we just have an issue with more artwork. We do our very best to publish as much as we can. If an edition is full we have been known to save pieces that we really like for future editions! Cheeky we know but why not?! Who’s going to stop us?

How did you use your experience as a writer to start forge? 

I write things for it! And I enjoy doing it. Thinking about it now it feels rather easy to me but I’m sure the reality is rather different! Come back and ask me when I’ve just put an issue together. We edit things much like we did in seminars at uni but that’s about all I can think of. I hate to sound like I’m bragging but it feels rather natural for me. I think this helps now we publish quarterly, I forget about the pain in between each issue!

How has Lockdown affected your creativity overall? 

Oh massively! It vanished for a while. The June edition was hell, I do remember that! I couldn't compose anything myself, not that I needed to other than the editorial. We were lucky enough that others had used their free time to become creative again, which worked out great for the Zine. I have only just begun writing and reading again since lockdown. I completed one book in lockdown, I’m ashamed to say. I don’t feel like I used it very efficiently but that happens, ay!

What are your plans for the future? 

Well much of that depends upon the level of submissions we receive in the next couple of editions. We have thrown around the idea of having four big editions a year, like we do now, accompanied by a smaller monthly one that would most likely have a theme. But this will only happen if our intake of submissions raises, so please submit and tell your friends to submit!

When’s the next issue coming out and where can we read it?

Our next edition comes out on the 21st September! All of our editions are published between the 20th and the 22nd of March, June, September and December as to align with the equinoxes and solstices. You can read all of our issues at www.issuu.com/forgezine or if you’re in the York vicinity pop into The Portal Bookshop on Patrick Pool, near the Shambles Market, they have a few physical copies of previous Zines.

Read the back issues here. And you can find Forge Zine on Twitter and Instagram.