Slovenski Podcasti

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Episode #24: Young poetry in the age of social media and AI: Perspectives from Europe and Asia

In an era of social media and generative artificial intelligence, where attention spans shrink and text is generated in seconds, is poetry a relic of the past or an art adapting to the digital age? Beyond mere promotion, how do poets use social media as a creative space? Should they embrace multimedia, video and even monetisation on platforms like OnlyFans? And where do they draw the line between accessibility and commercialisation? How do young poets – those who have come of age alongside social media – navigate this shifting landscape? In this conversation, I sat down with two young poets from opposite corners of the world, Slovenia’s Špela Setničar and Singapore’s Jonathan Chan. Together, we discuss the inevitable collision of poetry with social media and AI and the enduring human need for poetic connection. Can poetry withstand the pressures of an algorithm-driven world? Or will it, like vinyl records and typewriters, become a nostalgic artifact of the past? Špela Setničar is a radio announcer, host, screenwriter, performer and poet. She is completing a dual master’s program at AGRFT (Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television) and the Faculty of Arts. She dubs feature-length animated films, ‘commercials for luxury cars, bourgeois shampoos,’ and occasionally performs on the stages of theaters. Last year, her original screenplay for a feature film titled Magical Creatures received development funding from the Slovenian Film Center. The poetry collection Everything I Need to Tell You (Center for Slovenian Literature, 2024) is the author’s debut, which speaks in cinematic images about the experience of girlhood, from early childhood to the mid-twenties, when the author confronts a battle with cancer. Jonathan Chan is a writer and editor. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He is the author of the poetry collection going home (Landmark, 2022), which was named a finalist for the Singapore Literature Prize 2024. He serves as Managing Editor of poetry.sg. His poetry and essays have appeared in Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, Minarets, Gulf Coast, Magma, The Tiger Moth Review, Inheritance Magazine and Asymptote Journal. Some of his poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and the Hawker Prize for Southeast Asian Poetry.