Networked Poetics: Performing the Digital Turn in African Poetry
Speaker: Susanna Sacks
Introduced by: Anne Gulick
Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 11:00 AM EST/ London, 4:00 PM/ Lagos, 4:00 PM/ Johannesburg, 5:00 PM/ Nairobi, 6:00 PM
AbstractNetworked Poetics investigates how poetry moves through the world today. Simultaneously transnational and local, poetry in the twenty-first century is produced across digital networks, shaped through local communities, and evaluated on a global scale. It might start on social media, where a video of a poet circulates and goes viral, gaining international attention without ever going through traditional modes of publication.Focusing on Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Networked Poetics illustrates how contemporary poetry is shaped, from inception to canonization, by the influence of digital media publication. Interweaving ethnographic observation and extensive literary analysis, Sacks demonstrates that, as more artists in Africa reach wider audiences through online publication, poetic form has shifted to reflect social media’s aesthetic norms of urgency, immediacy, and populism. These changes have, in turn, challenged elite processes of valuation, forcing literary institutions like prizes, festivals, and curricula to accommodate the digital turn. The transformation of poetry, I argue, speaks to a broader shift in cultural capital since the rise of social media, as algorithmic platforms transform the relationship between writer, audience, and the broader social world.BioSusanna Sacks is an associate professor in the Department of Literature & Writing (English) at Howard University. A scholar of African literature, new media, and popular culture, her research examines the relationship between global governance structures and literary networks in southern Africa. Her first monograph, Networked Poetics: The Digital Turn in Southern African Poetry, was published with the University of Massachusetts Press in 2024, and received the 2025 Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize in African Studies. Her current research investigates the interplay between global funding structures and African literary production since 1980. She has served as co-editor for a special issue on “Sound Studies from Africa,” for the Journal of African Cultural Studies, and a cluster of Post-45 on “Reading with Algorithms,” and published articles a range of journals, including PMLA, RAL, and Africa Today.
Abstract
Networked Poetics investigates how poetry moves through the world today. Simultaneously transnational and local, poetry in the twenty-first century is produced across digital networks, shaped through local communities, and evaluated on a global scale. It might start on social media, where a video of a poet circulates and goes viral, gaining international attention without ever going through traditional modes of publication.
Focusing on Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, Networked Poetics illustrates how contemporary poetry is shaped, from inception to canonization, by the influence of digital media publication. Interweaving ethnographic observation and extensive literary analysis, Sacks demonstrates that, as more artists in Africa reach wider audiences through online publication, poetic form has shifted to reflect social media’s aesthetic norms of urgency, immediacy, and populism. These changes have, in turn, challenged elite processes of valuation, forcing literary institutions like prizes, festivals, and curricula to accommodate the digital turn. The transformation of poetry, I argue, speaks to a broader shift in cultural capital since the rise of social media, as algorithmic platforms transform the relationship between writer, audience, and the broader social world.
Bio
Susanna Sacks is an associate professor in the Department of Literature & Writing (English) at Howard University. A scholar of African literature, new media, and popular culture, her research examines the relationship between global governance structures and literary networks in southern Africa. Her first monograph, Networked Poetics: The Digital Turn in Southern African Poetry, was published with the University of Massachusetts Press in 2024, and received the 2025 Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize in African Studies. Her current research investigates the interplay between global funding structures and African literary production since 1980. She has served as co-editor for a special issue on “Sound Studies from Africa,” for the Journal of African Cultural Studies, and a cluster of Post-45 on “Reading with Algorithms,” and published articles a range of journals, including PMLA, RAL, and Africa Today.