Sketches Magazine is a home for all who love art and creative writing. Founded by a group of art - and poetry - lovers, and active Ekphrastic writers, Sketches is here to celebrate the inspiration we gain from engaging with different forms of art. We’re interested in how art changes us, and in turn, changes the art we make. As writers, we’ve felt that Ekphrasis as a term and practice isn’t known widely enough. Hence, Sketches Magazine.

Sketches gives writers a space where spur-of-the-moment ideas have a place to flourish, where that one line stuck in your head grows into something greater — something you’re proud of. As we all know, the writing process takes time, care, and revision. Writing often only feels worthwhile if it reaches that sought-after state of grace — your idea of literary perfection. But, that’s not what we believe in!

Our magazine is called Sketches precisely for this reason. It evokes a scribbled down idea, a roughly planned-out sonnet, an outline of someone’s face, a landscape you want to fill with watercolour later, a half-thought out idea you’ll keep adding to over time. We believe in the loose, scribbly, ‘imperfect’ form of your work. We believe in the beauty of the sketch. We believe in its value, and we believe it’s worth sharing.

Sketches hopes to give contributors a great degree of freedom, so we’ve kept our definition of what Ekphrasis means and involves pretty open. There are so many forms of creation that we see as art, and to limit our well of discussion and creativity would simply be counterproductive. We want contributors and readers to share their perspectives, and to see art for its infinite creative interpretations and representations.

This is precisely why we’re taking a work-focused approach to Sketches. We don’t require an author bio, your list of literary experience, nor to prove to us that you expertly ‘know’ the form you’re writing about. The Magazine is here to showcase the hard work and inventive ideas of our contributors. Our team understands the stress of starting out (after all, we’re a young and new publication ourselves!), the novelty of sending out your work for the first time, and the intensity of considering how to make a name for yourself. We welcome and especially encourage any new writers keen to share their work! With the digital landscape filling up with AI generated ‘creative writing’ and ‘art’, we strongly feel that the literary community must come together and cultivate a space where we still feel safe to keep (humanly) creating. We hope that Sketches Magazine becomes such a place, and we look forward to curating and sharing all your work in future volumes.

Best wishes from Sketches’ co-founders and co-editors,

Mariya & Sofia