Martin Smith
@mrtnsmth.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in creative writing and digital media in the UK. Researching scriptwriting for games and immersive media, leading on Digitally Enhanced Education, writing poems and making zines.
Cleanse your timeline with a cat pic. The black and white kitten is Oreo. The Turkish van mid yawn is Elsa. Pause for a moment. You don’t need to keep scrolling right now. You can put the phone down. You can just be in the room you’re in for a while.
September 4, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Cleanse your timeline with a cat pic. The black and white kitten is Oreo. The Turkish van mid yawn is Elsa. Pause for a moment. You don’t need to keep scrolling right now. You can put the phone down. You can just be in the room you’re in for a while.
Over the last month my ‘Take This With You & Leave It Somewhere Else’ #poetry #zines have crossed the ocean from the UK to Portland, Maine and popped up in Wales, Glossop, Manchester and at a Drake concert. To find out what role Lou Ferrigno played in all this click the thing.
Take This With You... (August update)
L’appel du vide
open.substack.com
August 31, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I reckon about a hundred bots have followed me in the last 24 hours. Anyone else getting this too?
August 24, 2025 at 10:44 PM
I reckon about a hundred bots have followed me in the last 24 hours. Anyone else getting this too?
What’s triggered me suddenly getting so many new followers? Have I been put in a new starter pack or something?
August 24, 2025 at 1:33 PM
What’s triggered me suddenly getting so many new followers? Have I been put in a new starter pack or something?
I’ll get around to posting a full update soon on where my #poetry #zines have been found this month to my Substack page (link in bio) but I’m particularly excited today to wake up to the news that a zine I left on a train to Manchester in early July has just shown up in Portland, Maine.
August 21, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Hello Bluesky. Stop the doom scroll for a second and enjoy this photo of my kittens Elsa and Oreo. Have a good day.
August 3, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Hello Bluesky. Stop the doom scroll for a second and enjoy this photo of my kittens Elsa and Oreo. Have a good day.
More from my ongoing poetry zine experiment on the attached link. The zines have made it to London and are starting to gather other people's artwork as they travel.
Zine Project (Week 6)
The zines have made it to London
open.substack.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:15 PM
More from my ongoing poetry zine experiment on the attached link. The zines have made it to London and are starting to gather other people's artwork as they travel.
Hello Bluesky. Here's another update on my current experiment, where I write poetry zines, leave them in public for other people to pass along, then map the zines' travels.
Poetry zine experiment - Week 5
Dispatches from the mile radius around my house
open.substack.com
July 21, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Hello Bluesky. Here's another update on my current experiment, where I write poetry zines, leave them in public for other people to pass along, then map the zines' travels.
I just perched a #poetry #zine on top of a signed Phil Cool vinyl, as you do. Phil Cool was a comedian from Chorley whose main thing was that he would pull faces. I looked online to see if I could find this album. I was curious how he translated such a visual act to an audio only medium…
July 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM
I’m leaving poetry zines in random places to be found by strangers. They each contain instructions to the finder to take the zine with them and leave it somewhere else. In the linked post I start to map out where the zines have been so far.
Zine experiment - Week 4
Mapping where the zines have been.
open.substack.com
July 14, 2025 at 9:52 AM
I’m leaving poetry zines in random places to be found by strangers. They each contain instructions to the finder to take the zine with them and leave it somewhere else. In the linked post I start to map out where the zines have been so far.
A week or so ago I found a book of poetry called The Rubaiyat on the charity stand at Tesco. I’ve now replaced The Rubaiyat with my own Rubaiyat, except Rubaiyat means quatrain and none of the poems in my zine are quatrains, but still. I put some more poems where there used to be poems
July 13, 2025 at 3:40 PM
A week or so ago I found a book of poetry called The Rubaiyat on the charity stand at Tesco. I’ve now replaced The Rubaiyat with my own Rubaiyat, except Rubaiyat means quatrain and none of the poems in my zine are quatrains, but still. I put some more poems where there used to be poems
My #poetry #zines are on the move! I’ll figure out a way to map their movements then post more here and on the Substack in my bio. Thanks to anyone who’s messaged to tell me where you found one/left one. The pics are the latest zines, left on my morning/evening commutes into/out of sunny Manchester.
July 10, 2025 at 6:34 PM
My #poetry #zines are on the move! I’ll figure out a way to map their movements then post more here and on the Substack in my bio. Thanks to anyone who’s messaged to tell me where you found one/left one. The pics are the latest zines, left on my morning/evening commutes into/out of sunny Manchester.
New post on my Substack about the 3rd week of my #poetry #zine experiment, and about these poems I found while I was out leaving poems for someone to find.
Take This With You & Leave It Somewhere Else - Week 3
The other day I had to run some errands, so I quickly made a shiny new zine to take with me.
open.substack.com
July 7, 2025 at 12:44 PM
TAKE THIS WITH YOU & LEAVE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! Hot off the presses and coming soon to the empty space by the crystal skulls. It’s been hard to get out and about this week so I’ve grabbed the chance to make a shiny new #poetry #zine and leave it next to some ornamental skeletons.
July 4, 2025 at 2:23 PM
I’ve posted another update about my ongoing #poetry #zine experiment. I put loads more of these things out over the last week and am having a lot of fun writing and making them. Click the thing to find out more and as a bonus you'll receive a reasonably serviceable metaphor about bus seats.
Zine Project: Week 2
A serviceable metaphor about bus seats
open.substack.com
June 30, 2025 at 8:55 AM
The patterns are so random on trains & buses because it’s supposed to distract your eye from stains or vandalism, like you’ll be so thrown by the overall chaos of the complicated patterns that you just won’t be able to notice any details. Anyway I’ve thrown another #poetry #zine out into the world
June 26, 2025 at 8:03 AM
I’ve scattered many zines around today. I’ve been on a bit of a spree. Frank here appears to have found one already.
#zine #poems #zinester #foundpoetry
#zine #poems #zinester #foundpoetry
June 24, 2025 at 5:59 PM
I’ve scattered many zines around today. I’ve been on a bit of a spree. Frank here appears to have found one already.
#zine #poems #zinester #foundpoetry
#zine #poems #zinester #foundpoetry
It continues. Left on the bus. I tried to do another crown bind here but the card was too thick so I had to do an 8 page fold instead and it’s made me want to vary the binding/folding up. I saw a great thread bound book the other day that I loved so I might give that a go. #zines #poetry
June 24, 2025 at 8:59 AM
I've posted an update on my Substack about how my #poetry #zine experiment is going so far, for anyone interested in that sort of thing. open.substack.com/pub/martinsm...
Zine experiment- Week 1
The story so far
open.substack.com
June 23, 2025 at 11:42 AM
I've posted an update on my Substack about how my #poetry #zine experiment is going so far, for anyone interested in that sort of thing. open.substack.com/pub/martinsm...
Take This With You & Leave It Somewhere Else: stuffed in the magazine rack at a cafe near you. #poetry #zine #zinemaking
June 21, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Take This With You & Leave It Somewhere Else: stuffed in the magazine rack at a cafe near you. #poetry #zine #zinemaking
I wrote this and didn’t know where to put it, so it can live on my Substack. Its about Brian Wilson, ish, sort of. open.substack.com/pub/martinsm...
Brian Wilson died
I was working in HMV in Bolton when I first noticed the fascists.
open.substack.com
June 19, 2025 at 11:55 PM
I wrote this and didn’t know where to put it, so it can live on my Substack. Its about Brian Wilson, ish, sort of. open.substack.com/pub/martinsm...