Rupi Kaur and the curious case of rising Instapoets: why did Instagram poetry succeed?
In 2015, The Washington Post reported that poetry was facing extinction according to a survey conducted in 2012 as “the downward trend is nearly perfectly linear — and doesn’t show signs of abating.” However, in a surprising comeback, NEA observed that the poetry-reading rate doubled from 8.2 percent in 2012 to 17.5 percent in 2017 (Garber, 2018). Similarly, the UK poetry market saw a significant increase in sales valued at £8.8m in 2015. Donald Futers, Penguin’s editor for poetry, attributed this to the emergence of a new generation of ‘Instagram poets’ (Cowdrey, 2016).
One such Instapoet, Rupi Kaur, has become a case study for the resurgence of poetry using the internet culture. Her book Milk and Honey, self-published in 2014 and later published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, has sold millions of copies and translated into 25 languages. Having started with posting her work on Instagram, Kaur has over 4m followers today. Nikita Gill, Atticus, Lang Leav, and R.M.Drake, to name a few, have also joined the successful ranks of Instapoets with published works. But the resulting growing deviation of their works from the sanctity of ‘real’ poetry has been called into question.
Poet Rebecca Watts declared Instagram poetry to be amateurish and an artless “consumer-driven content” in PN Review (Byager, 2018). Milk and Honey was famously parodied on social media with memes trolling for what was considered the poetry to be too simplistic and easy to create (Carlin, 2017). Despite the popularity of Instagram poetry pages and the successful venture of some of these poets’ into the print publishing world, these quick fixes of poetry have faced criticism for not taking themselves seriously. As Kim (2019) writes, “modern poetry has taken a turn for the worse, reduced into nothing but quick, shallow, artificial lines that leave nothing for the reader’s own interpretation.”
According to Lloyd (2019), while Watts was right in accusing that Instagram poetry denies complexity within its text, that in itself is the reason for its immense success. “People don’t have time to regularly dissect Wordsworth or Byron, but a flash of poetry on their feed can make them feel like they’ve connected with something.” And although he acknowledges that it may often lead to people faking as talented, “that doesn’t mean the reaction of the readers isn’t real and valid.” As further agreed upon by Judith Palmer, Director of the Poetry Society, “it’s less about flexing your linguistic muscles and more about gaining instant understanding from readers” (Byager, 2018).
Considering the vast audience generated on social media due to its global connectivity, Dr. Eleanor Spencer-Regan, digital director of the Institute of Poetry and Poetics at Durham University, argues that Instapoets have succeeded in radically diversifying a genre that has been traditionally “perceived to be dominated by white, straight people (readers and writers)” (Byager, 2018).
The free online space has allowed them to amass a following of Millennials and Generation Z while catering to their decreasing attention span, love for aesthetics by providing a comforting glimpse of easily understandable inspirational lines in today’s challenging and spirally world.
Furthermore, Milk and Honey’s success reportedly revived interest in poetry and attention from booksellers for poetry titles. Classics such as Rita Dove and Audre Lorde enjoyed increasing demand as readers shift around to discover the delights of poetry (Maher, 2018). Recognising the potential of growing poetry in the social network, Poetizer was developed for poetry lovers to share their mutual interest devoid of social media (Flatt, 2019).
Having delayed poetry’s extinction, the future may appear optimistic. But as the world continues to evolve, along with the appearance of new poetry lovers, the industry must be open to new forms and receptions of poetry for it to continuously flourish. As a result, Salinas (2020) reports that “the publishing industry is paying attention to what writers are doing in these platforms and it becomes a site for them to scout for talent.”
Byager, L. (2018). Roll your eyes all you like, but Instagram poets are redefining the genre for millennials. Mashable [online]. Available at: https://mashable.com/article/instagram-poetry-democratise-genre/#b0RPP5z8bsqM [Accessed 1 Feb. 2021].
Carlin, S. (2017). Meet Rupi Kaur, Queen of the “Instapoets”. Rolling Stone. [online] Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/meet-rupi-kaur-queen-of-the-instapoets-129262/ [Accessed 30/01/2021].
Cowdrey, K. (2016). Poetry market celebrates National Poetry Day with highest sales ever. The Bookseller. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/news/poetry-market-celebrates-national-poetry-day-highest-sales-ever-405931 [Accessed 29/01/2021].
Ingraham, C. (2015) Poetry is going extinct, government data show. The Washington Post.[online] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/24/poetry-is-going-extinct-government-data-show/ [Accessed 30/01/2021].
Flatt, M. (2019). Poetry platform Poetizer hopes to put the soul back into social media. The Bookseller. [online] Available at: https://www.thebookseller.com/futurebook/poetizer-918641 [Accessed 01/02/2021].
Garber, M. (2018) Poetry Is Everywhere. The Atlantic. [online] Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/when-poetry-isnt-poetry/567571/ [Accessed 29/01/2021].
Kim, J. (2019). Opinion: The problem with “Instapoets.” HS Insider. [online] Available at: https://highschool.latimes.com/la-canada-high-school/opinion-the-problem-with-instapoets/ [Accessed 29/01/2021].
Lloyd, A. (2019). I Faked My Way as an Instagram Poet, and It Went Bizarrely Well. Vice [online]. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmjmj3/instagram-poetry-become-successful-scam [Accessed 30/01/2021].
Maher, J. (2018). Can Instagram Make Poems Sell Again? Publishers Weekly. [online] Available at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/75976-can-instagram-make-poems-sell-again.html [Accessed 30 Jan. 2021].
Salinas, I. (2020). A new generation of poets on social media. The Sundial [online]. Available at: https://sundial.csun.edu/156276/arts-entertainment/a-new-generation-of-poets-on-social-media/ [Accessed 01/02/2021].
