Digital Publishing of Poetry and its Detractors

Digital publishing has stimulated responses of both denigration and delight. Digital publishing of poetry acutely encounters these conflicting responses, perhaps because of poetry’s cultural position as an elite artform. Poetry published online is criticized by those such as Rebecca Watts, who argues, “If we are to foster the kind of intelligent critical culture required to combat the effects of populism in politics, we must stop celebrating amateurism and ignorance in our poetry” (2018, 17). Similarly, Andrew Lloyd faked an Instagram account titled @RavenStaresPoetry to test how popular he could become writing unexceptional poetry on Instagram. He explains, “I had amassed 646 followers in just four weeks [. . .] Not bad for zero talent, hollow words and surface-level sentiments” (2019, n.p.). These detractors hint at underlying tensions in ideas of poetry’s value, digital culture communities, and the contemporary publishing industry. Researchers and critics have grappled with the breakdown of artistic elitism through digital media platforms (see Bolter 2019). While it is clear that much poetry published online is not of finest literary standard, digital mediums have filled a gap in the publishing industry. Unlike print poetry published by established, reputable companies, digital publishing largely bypasses gatekeepers and is freely available to readers via targeted websites and social media. Disparagements of digitally published poetry resemble much of the criticism of self-publishing by print culture stalwarts. This article discusses the arguments against digital publication of poetry within the wider context of a changing publishing landscape.