Inky Fingers is a series of events in Edinburgh for people who love words. We believe in throwing words wide open: we want everyone to be able to create with language and share their work. We care about supporting and encouraging writers and spoken word performers, creative experimentation, building communities of writers working together to create, and putting on fantastic events that celebrate language.

We’re now in our second year. In year one, we ran a monthly Writers’ Group, where writers got together to share their work, read it in a relaxed atmosphere, and give each other supportive critical feedback, and ahugely popular monthly Open Mic night – an event where anyone can get up and perform, with first-class feature performers as well. We’ve also run a series WordLab workshops with professional writers and performers on every aspect of the world of words along with Special Events, such as our DFAP Slam. And then there was the extraordinary Inky Fingers Minifest 2011 — a 6-day August celebration of everything spoken word.

In year two, we’re going to be continuing all that work — but there’ll be more. We want to hold more special events, collaborate with more organisations, and expand our reach. If you want to be part of it, get in touch!

We were based at the Forest on 3 Bristo Place. Forest was a volunteer-run not-for-profit DIY arts action events social chaos space, with vegetarian café, providing a space for free arts events open to all. Tragically, Forest is currently closed due to the bankruptcy of its former landlords — as an amazing resource for ever, it’s hugely important that you join the Save the Forest Campaign now. And while Forest is closed, Inky Fingers will be continuing its spirit by running free and open access events across the city.

Email us with questions, thoughts and love at inkyfingersedinburgh AT gmail DOT com, follow us on Twitter @InkyFingersEdin, or find us on Facebook here.

We run a regular mailing list with details of our events, and of other writerly things happening in Edinburgh. If you’d like to be added, then e-mail us at the above address with the subject line “Mailing List”.