Poet Hera Lindsay Bird Rides Wave of New Platforms

In an article about 30-year-old Russian-born British poet Arch Hades, “the highest paid living poet of all time” and the “new meta verse”, Financial Times Baya Simons mentions Wellingtonian Hera Lindsay Bird, 35, part of a body of “Instapoets”.

Bird, the poet behind two tender, hilarious and fabulously graphic poetry collections has seen several of her poems go viral, Simons writes, including “Monica”, which begins as a tirade against the Friends character, and ends up a reflection on falling in love with her friend.

The poem’s online popularity had a real-terms pay-off: “It probably helped me sell the UK rights to Penguin,” Bird says. Did the viral buzz make her happy? “Yes! Always. I aspire to the mainstream.”

Bird first gained popularity when her poem “Keats Is Dead So Fuck Me From Behind” went viral in 2016.

Original article by Baya Simons, Financial Times, September 22, 2022.