Selfie‐Help: The Multimodal Appeal of Instagram Poetry

Abstract

Former United States Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera, has said, “A pen is different from the pad, the key, moving your fingers across a screen. I like both, I like to work on sketchbooks, big old white sketch paper. I like how that feels, and I like to put different media on it. Then there’s the phone, smartphone, iPad: It’s the new page, and it’s not the same page anymore” (qtd. in Kellogg). Herrera draws precise distinctions between handwritten and typed poetry, particularly when typed on a smartphone or iPad. Poets who type their work directly into social networking sites such as Instagram, perhaps from their smartphones, might be considered embarrassingly amateurish compared to Herrera. However, Rupi Kaur, arguably the most recognized of the current crop of Instagram poets, has over three million followers on the site and has recently published her second volume of poetry in print through Simon and Schuster. As social media poets, such as Kaur, gain prominence, their publications on Instagram are reshaping literary form and reaching new audiences.