[Commlist] CFP: Reading #Instapoetry

*Conference CFP*

*Reading #Instapoetry*

University of Glasgow, May 27th, 2020

Deadline for submissions: January 30th, 2020.

Conference organisers: JuEunhae Knox (University of Glasgow) and James 
Mackay (European University Cyprus)

One of the unexpected side effects of the digital age has been the 
revival of poetry as a popular art form. Rupi Kaur’s collection Milk and 
Honey has become an astonishing worldwide publishing phenomenon, but she 
is only the most high profile example of a new wave of poets who have 
bypassed the traditional routes to success. These poets create poetry 
that is generally short and places heavy emphasis on inspirational 
messages, and then use various social media platforms, most notably 
Instagram, to share their work directly with a reading public. Audiences 
that have traditionally been resistant to literary work have flocked to 
these writers, and in a few short years this movement – if indeed it 
should be classified as a movement – has become enormously popular. At 
the same time, the poetry world has seen something of a backlash against 
these writers, most notably exemplified by  Rebecca Watt’s essay “The 
Cult of the Noble Amateur” (PN Review, 2018). Instapoetry has also been 
largely snubbed by academia for several reasons, not least that much of 
the poetry itself is resistant to formal analysis on account of its 
simplicity of message and lack of formal innovation. Although some 
collections of Instapoems have achieved great success, most Instapoetry 
is ephemeral, never intended to leave the Instagram platform, and 
writers are often adolescent or even younger, untaught and not widely 
read. The sheer volume of Instapoetry, too, is daunting: 
#poetsofinstagram alone links to nearly nine million poems and poetic 
images. There is little critical consensus on how to deal with poetry 
that relies as much for impact on the language of visual design and 
hypertext/hashtagging as it does on the actual text of the poem.

This will be the first symposium of its kind devoted to academic 
discussion of these writings and what their content, appearance and 
functioning in a digital sharing economy can tell us about the current 
moment. We welcome proposals on any aspect of #instapoetry, including 
but certainly not limited to:

• Precedents to Instapoetry trends, particularly in popular verse or 
past literary movements
• Therapy cultures and the therapeutic value of #instapoems
• Reformulations of race and gender in the #instapoetry feed, 
particularly given the predominance of young women of colour among 
prominent Instapoets
• Poetry in material cultures (e.g. Victorian tapestry, seaside 
postcards or greetings cards) and its relationship to instapoetry
• Digital humanities approaches to the #instapoetry archive
• Analysis of the visual grammar of #instapoems
• De-professionalisation of poetic labour in the digital economy
• Global #instapoetry examples and their function in local cultures
• Tagging culture and poetry sharing

One of our primary aims is to put together the basis for a collection of 
academic essays on poetry’s interaction with social media.

We enthusiastically welcome non-traditional and interdisciplinary 
approaches. The aim is to open up discussion of this new poetic 
phenomenon, and we are hoping to have participation from one or more 
#poetsofinstagram.

Abstracts should be around 250 words, and should include your name, 
institutional affiliation, and email address. Please send abstracts to 
(instapoetryconference /at/ gmail.com) by January 30th, 2020.
If you have any questions, please contact JuEunhae at 
(Jueunhae.Knox /at/ glasgow.ac.uk) and/or James via (j.mackay /at/ euc.ac.cy).
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