As previously announced, we have now split the Smashing Times Newsletter in two. On the one hand is the monthly Smashing Times Newsletter; on the other, Tintreach: The Smashing Times Arts and Literary Journal, which appears quarterly online, featuring works from across all artforms. The latter is a continuation and major expansion of the monthly newsletter’s Tintreach section. Previous contributors to this section include poets Jessica Traynor, Mary O’Malley, and Annemarie Ní Churreáin, Senator Lynn Ruane, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Narges Mohammadi, rapper-singer Saint Levant, and many more. (To read past editions of the newsletter, please click here.)
‘Tintreach’ is the Irish word for lightning, which symbolises the spark that animates art, making it striking and engaging. Each edition of Tintreach includes three or four artworks by a Featured Artist, work by three other artists (usually with multiple artworks by each), and an article from The Art of Life Series (or other series) by Mary Moynihan, Smashing Times Artistic Director and writer of novels, poetry, plays, and films, and a creator of art and photography. From April 2025 onwards, the journal will also contain a Featured Artist interview.
The first edition of the journal will appear later this month, on Thursday, 30 January, under the theme of Arts and Human Rights. The April 2025 edition, which comes out on Thursday, 17 April, will be unthemed. The submissions call for that edition has yet to be published; once it is, there will be a deadline in early March. Submissions calls are always posted on the News page of our website, with further promotion on social media and in our newsletters.
What sets Tintreach apart as a publication?
Firstly, there is its openness to all artforms. Be it an interpretative dance video or a collage of embroidered haiku, if your work is conceivably an artwork, and fits the medium of an online journal, then we will consider it for publication with the same level of deference and care afforded more conventional forms.
Secondly, each artist selected for publication always has multiple pieces included. (With the only exception being where the successful submission is an extraordinarily long epic poem, or a solicited submission is a story or excerpt of over 8,000 words, for example.) The purpose of this is to offer artists, especially emerging artists, more exposure than a journal publication would normally offer.
The last thing to mention is that the flexibility of our online formatting enables us to publish videos, which opens the door for short film, dance, songs, theatre excerpts, and so on.
The artworks are selected from a combination of an open submissions call and solicited submissions. Artistic merit is the primary requirement for publication (provided the work is on theme, if it is a themed edition), which include, for example, a strong technical foundation, depth and complexity, and originality. We are also committed to diversity and representation; as such, we strive to include the work of people from communities which have historically been underrepresented. Finally, as a Smashing Times publication, the fundamental principles of human rights, social justice, and equality will often be reflected in the journal’s content. (NB: This does not mean your work must focus on themes of social justice.)
To subscribe to receive both Tintreach: The Smashing Times Arts and Literary Journal and the Smashing Times Newsletter, please click here.