Fine, I'll Do It Myself
I found 300+ poets on Substack.
Last updated: May 22, 2024
There are all these invisible barriers between poetry and people.
I’ve felt it.
It’s why I had not read a single poem as an adult until a poem was read to me out loud in a writing workshop, and that changed the entire trajectory of my creative practice and career, which section of the bookstore I now beeline to before zigzagging my way back through.
A poem had to hit me for me to give poetry a try. Like a car accident or a train wreck except there’s no blood or guts; the “damage” is your insides get a little ooey gooey. Whatever lens you’ve been seeing the world in feels both softer and sharper. Okay, I needed that, after years acting like machine.
But say you’re more open-minded than I was. Say you get the gist: read poetry, feel things. Say you’re looking. You might pick up a poetry book—but you might choose one, not love it, and leave it at that. You might follow some poetry accounts on social media—but after you eagerly tap like on a few as they start to infiltrate your feed, you feel art melt into content and as much as you’d like to you don’t go any deeper; right next to that poem is a cat video, the ex you’re still avoiding. You can’t handle so many truths; to retain function, your brain enacts stasis, thumbs and eyes lock into place.
So here we are on Substack, where this newsletter is housed. The rare optimistic media story in the multi-pronged never-ending attack on the written word. (“People don’t read?”) The platform finally giving writers a fighting chance at making a sustainable living when business as usual is crumbling like dominoes made of cake. The “economic engine1 of culture” as Substack would like to be known. A place between a book and a blip.
About a year ago I searched “poetry” here to see what would come up.
Well, first I discovered that Substack doesn’t have a poetry category. Fine. I get it. Maybe poetry is not a viable enough category. I’ll find them myself.
As I did, I became specifically interested in poets on Substack (the people) and not just poems (the product), because:
I'm nosy. I love knowing what goes into how other people create. Poetry is typically both intimate and private and though most of these poets are not explicitly writing about how they write poems, we get to see a layer deeper than a static book or a temporary Instagram post.
There's an interesting dichotomy between poetry's form being accessible, theoretically at least, and all the invisible barriers between poetry and people. Who is writing between these lines?
I'm interested in what self-published means when a whole poem could be “self-published” in an instant onto social media, unlike a book. Can the idea of creative agency hold more substantiality and entirety?
I’m lazy. I once heard that the only people buying poetry are other poets which means at least that poets are reading poetry. Many of the poets on this list came up not through Substack's search function but because I googled other poets' names and found these poets writing about said poets' work. A.ka. a shortcut to finding more poetry you might like.
For anyone who is looking up poets on Substack because they’re a poet writing in the dark like I am, wondering if there is anyone out there, not just a sea of poems floating around but real people trying to make art: maybe they’ll come across this list and keep going.
Below I’ve compiled a list of at least 9923 poets on Substack. (I finished this post at a nice 99 but kept finding more, so I’m just going to leave this number.)
Among the poets: award-winners, one rockstar and one three actors, a blackout poet, a turtle poet, a few poet-artists and poet-novelists, a poet who has written 40,000 poems, spoken word poets, ranging in age from teenage-dom all the way up to our oldest and wisest—all moving beyond the invisible barriers of gatekeepers to assert themselves in a place in culture alongside crypto, comics, and three categories of politics.
Here a poet does not have to wait for permission and validation. A poet does not even have to be a “poet”. A poet does not have to be a mystery to make mystery, and beauty, and wonder, and magic. A poet has a face, and a pulse, and a place.
Wanna meet some poets? Who knows, you might need just one.
ABOUT THE LIST:
I did some light curation for:
Active accounts: posted within the last ~three months
Quality: obviously subjective but there is a bar…somewhere
Breadth: intentional to reflect the diversity of poets and poetry today
I have not included poets who are using Substack as a platform for a literary journal or who write only for other poets. Not that there’s anything wrong with either; they’re just not what this list is.
Added March 26: I have included poets who share their own poems as well as those who don’t and instead share their ideas, process, notes, and lives. This is about celebrating the poets, not just the poetry.
I think Substack supports other languages but this is an English-language list.
This list is obviously non-exhaustive. I am a human, not an engine.
HOW TO BROWSE THE LIST:
To avoid endless tab overwhelm as you’re browsing this list, hover over each publication name to see a short blurb before clicking over. If you’re not on desktop I think you’ll need to be in order to activate that preview feature.
THE LIST (A → Z):
(Updated to add: Saffron has also put together and is continually updating a Poetic Library where you can find even more poets on Substack! Thanks to & for sharing! Psst, poets: you can get listed here.)
I know a thing or two about metaphorical engines. (Nothing about real ones!) About a decade ago, I was leading a tiny little startup which I had dubbed "the discovery engine for retail". This tiny little engine that could got the attention of Etsy execs. Why did I call it an "engine"? Engines are a force of propulsion, a system of mechanics that turns energy into motion. Without that, it might as well be: a marketplace, a platform, a directory. All sometimes interchangeable but not really the same thing at all.
I’m sure there are more but I need to go out and enjoy the post-winter sun. But at last count: 118. And then I just stopped counting.
We’re now at over 300. Love to see it.
Hello again to anyone who’s made it all the way down here! (This comment is for the poets.)
I wrote this post to give people new to reading poetry another way in. Turns out, a lot of poets have showed up looking for their community of poets (or sharing their own). So I've compiled here a short but sweet list of communities on Substack FOR poets, for your convenience:
- https://onlypoems.substack.com/
- https://poetrypals.substack.com/
- https://treshathepoetrysaloncom.substack.com/
- https://mayacpopa.substack.com/
- https://semorterlaing.substack.com/ (*home of another list of poets you can add yourself to!)
- https://100poems.substack.com
If you have a Substack community FOR poets and want to welcome them into your community, feel free to reply to this comment and I’ll add you to this list for any other poets who have landed here. 🫶
Hi all! I'm leaving a quick update here. After adding more poets to the original list since it was originally published on March 20, I can no longer do that and this post is now locked (will explain more in a follow-up, but basically: technical reasons). Am working on a part 2 with more poets coming soon.