Stankeviciute 1

Annotated Bibliography

Berens, Kathi Inman. “E-Lit’s #1 Hit: Is Instagram Poetry E-Literature?” Electronic

BookReview, Creative Commons Attribution, 5 July 2020,

https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/e-lits-1-hit-is-instagram-poetry-e-literature/.

This essay by Kathi Inman Berens discusses the beginnings of the “Instapoetry

phenomenon” and how social media platforms facilitate society’s curiosity for the new

writing form. Berens points out an interesting correlation between the initial publishing

of poet Lang Leav’s book Love and Misadventures in 2013, and the increase in public

interest for the new writing form. As stated by Berens,“Year-over-year annual poetry

sales indicate a wallopingg 21% annual compound growth rate since 2013, a growth

corresponding with when Lang Leav self-published … Love and Misadventures, which

originally appeared in Tumblr.” This outlines how writers can climb to success by

starting out on social media, and to others’ dismay, nurture an audience’s desire for

printed copies in addition to the “free” e-literature.

Jošar, Nuša. “Instagram Poets Are the New Generation of Confessional Poets Instagram.”

Instagram Poets Are the New Generation of Confessional Poets, University of Ljubljana

Faculty of Philosophy, https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?id=154320&lang=slv.

Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.

In this master’s thesis, University of Ljubljana student Nusa Josar discusses Instapoetry’s

origins and provides examples of three popular Instapoets’ work and their individual rises

to success. Like many other sources, she considers poet Lang Leav to be the Internet’s

first Instapoet. She also discusses what makes Instapoetry so popular while comparing it
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to traditional poetry. Josar writes, “The first similarity that Instagram poets bear when

compared to their confessional colleagues is their struggles with mental health,” and it

can be seen in the poets’ work that Josar later analyzes in her thesis that it is Instapoets’

public display of vulnerability that keeps audiences coming back for more, and thus

birthing popularity for this type of e-literature.

“Instapoets Rekindling U.S. Poetry Book Sales, the NPD Group Says.” Cision PRWeb, NPD

Bookscan, NPD Group, INC, 5 Apr. 2018,

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/04/prweb15389138.htm

This PR Web report discusses the correlation between the increase in social media poetry

and an upward trend in poetry book sales in the US. The writer lists the top twenty-best

selling poets in the US in 2017 and amazingly, twelve of them were Instapoets. As stated

in the report, the NPD Group commends Instapoetry for “the resurgence of the poetry

genre”, and considers the trend to be “a very exciting example of how a traditional form

can be completely re-invigorated by a new platform and a new audience”.

Kovik, Kate and Curwood, Jen Scott. 4th ed., vol. 53, Literacy UKLA, Sydney, Australia, 2019,

pp. 185–195, #Poetryisnotdead: Understanding Instagram Poetry within a

Transliteracies Framework, http://www.jenscottcurwood.com/wp-content/uploads/

2019/11/Kovalik-and-Curwood-Instagram-Poetry.pdf

This research paper explores the “digital, global literacy practice” of Instapoetry by

analyzing different examples of poems posted directly on Instagram, and also describes a

process of interviewing different Instapoets to understand their own interest in the form.
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The paper brings to light to the multimodal, creative freedom of Instapoetry and how the

community-like bond between Instapoets can instill confidence in users as well: “...the

free mobile app is highly valued by young poets, as it provides the tools required to

publish their work and gain a following, while making poetry accessible to a worldwide

audience. The ability to write anonymously, and the supportive nature of the Instapoetry

community, has seen young poets empowered to construct an identity or counternarrative

and engage in writing as an act of resistance.”

Lang Leav Artist's Dialogue ADMU Manila, 2014 — Love and Misadventure, Fully Booked,

2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6mJSpjXrU. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.

In this recording of Lang Leav’s dialogue at a book signing at University of Manila, she

talks about how social media helped facilitate her rise to success of her first published

chapbook Love and Adventure and how she ultimately achieved the title of an Instapoet.

She tells the audience how she originally started posting her poetry on the app Tumblr in

2013, and though she never intended to publish a book, her fanbase’s growing desire for

one led to her self-publishing a collection of her social media poetry Love and

Misadventure. Today, she is considered by many to be the first example of an Instapoet

and her chapbook to be the “first printed copy of social media poetry”. This video

provides a primary source directly from Leav herself, which serves as a great

accompaniment to the other mentioned sources that commend her for kicking off

popularity for the Instapoetry form.

Ruchti, Spencer, et al. Slam Poetry: An Online Intervention for Depression, University of

Montana, ScholarWorks, 2016, . Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.

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This is a paper written by the researchers at the University of Montana discussing the

process and results of their project, the “Bluebird Poetry Project”. The team created a

website that invited any users that struggled with mental health to complete mood-rating

surveys on the site between watching videos of slam poetry. Increasingly more positive

responses on the mood-rating surveys correlated with the longer a user engaged with

videos of poetry. As stated in the thesis, “While symptoms of depression include loss of

interest in previously beloved activities and social isolation, the use of social words and

core drive words indicate that, by… watching slam poetry, site users undertook the very

emotions/activities that depression normally undermines. “ In other words, the results of

this university’s project emphasized the healing qualities poetry can have on those with

poor mental health, and it can be assumed Instapoetry may have a similar effect on its

audience.