One Night Stanzas

One of the most obvious Twitter resources to start with is #poetry — a huge and popular tag, and a mixed bag of home-grown poems, links to poems elsewhere, writing prompts, links to blogs, sites and other resources, and of course numerous examples of the super-short, ever-popular Twitter-poem. #poem and #poets are similar tags and can often yield gold.

Smaller tags are updated less frequently but can provide little ‘communities’ to get involved in… and they’re generally more full of interesting stuff, too. A favourite of mine is #wrejection, where writers share their amusing and unfortunate rejection tales. Another great tag is #BehindThePoetry where Twitfolk create imaginary dramas for their favourite poets, dead and alive. I also like #literature — a larger tag but most of the links you find there lead to interesting places…

A new Twitter craze is listing, something I haven’t quite got the hang of yet, I don’t think — though I have created a list of Literature and Poetry tweets. Lists are collections of Twitfolk organised by ‘theme’, which update automatically whenever those Twitfolk write a new tweet. There are a lot of literary lists out there; some useful ones are @swimmerpoet’s libraries list and @LitFest’s publishers list.

As for literary people to follow on Twitter… here are some recommendations!

Publishers & booksellers: @picadorbooks // @ForPub // @blackwellbooks // @thebookseller // @FaberBooks // @analoguebooks // @inpressbooks // @Waterstones // @canongatebooks // @bookdepository

Poetry resources: @thiscollection // @ByLeavesWeLive // PoetryFound // @ThePoetryTrust // @KerouacDotCom // @poetryschool // @PoetryDayUK // @hellopoetry // @PoetrySociety

Poetry magazines: @TheParisReview // @AmbitMagazine // @Cadaverine // @anonpoetry // @handfulofstones

Poets: @konamacphee // @weaponizer // @samuelcoleridge // @jswinch // @VisuellePoesie // @MargaretAtwood // @ajodasso // @allen_ginsberg // @bcollinspoetry // @alastaircook

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(Photo by Wonderlander)