Reading #Instapoetry: A Poetics of Instagram

In the 21st century, poetry enjoyed a publishing boom, largely thanks to the rise of a cohort of writers labelled “Instapoets” – named after the Instagram platform where many of them first became famous. The work of these writers has been controversial with other poets and literary critics, who argue that their product is in some way not really poetry: at the same time, Instapoets have reached new audiences, held sold-out readings, and been deeply loved by their fans. In this collection, writers ask how we can approach poems marked by such extreme simplicity. Can we see them as being products of their platform, created to satisfy the algorithm? Might we read their interaction with the digital environment through their hashtags? What importance should we ascribe to the high number of Instapoets from immigrant and other frequently excluded groups? What can we make of the contrast between the capitalist hustle of influencer poetry and the frequent insistence in Instapoetry on the deeply personal? Can Instapoems be generated automatically? What do they tell us about affects of the digital age?