By Elizabeth Gracen:
There is something about engaging with Gen Z that always gives me a rush of optimism. Yes, the world can feel like a dark place at times, but I encourage you to talk to young people. They are the future. They are smart, informed, creative, passionate, and full of compassion for their fellow beings. Without exception, I always walk away from a conversation with anyone from Generation Z feeling much better. Such was my experience when Seohyun Ryu reached out through The Gen Z Collective to ask us to feature the great work her platform WRITIE POET is doing with young poets from around the world.
Since Flapper Press is all about poetry and poets, it seemed like a perfect fit to feature WRITIE POET on our site. I reached out to Seohyun to tell me all about the organization and how young poets can become part of their initiative.
Please Meet WRITIE POET and Seohyun Ryu!
Elizabeth Gracen: Seohyun, thank you so much for talking to us about your terrific organization! Please tell our readers all about WRITIE POET and how its formation came about.
Seohyun Ryu: As I am a writer, I’ve always wanted to create a platform for young writers like me to flourish with their creativity. With the help of amazing writers I know, I was able to create WRITIE POET, a writing community that aims to give opportunities to young writers all around the world.
WRITIE POET has its POETRY MAGAZINE, where people can publish meaningful poems that are submitted through this Google form. Submissions are accepted anytime throughout the year, and we notify authors within a week as to whether their poems got selected. Submitting poems to our magazine is a great opportunity for young writers to get their writing published!
WRITIE POET is also open to poems for YOUR POETRY. I think YOUR POETRY is what defines us from other writing communities. As the team members of WRITIE POET are from all around the world, we are very fond of how language can impact writing. WRITIE POET accepts poems, quotes, and short writings that are written in any language through this Google form. We post submitted writings on our Instagram account, @writiepoet, and our website frequently! If there are writings by an unknown author that should be shared, we highly encourage people to submit them through YOUR POETRY. We are always open to reading and exploring writings from various languages and writers!
EG: How did you put this international team of young writers from all over the world together?
SR: Our team met at a famous writing workshop called the Kenyon Winter Workshop 2023, where we had the freedom to create literary works during the class where we all wrote many poems. We exchanged contacts at the end of the workshop, as we all love literature. We even made a group chat where we talked about how much we missed participating in the workshop. To keep our passion for writing alive and to encourage young people to write together, we started WRITIE POET. It is amazing how writers from all around the world were able to work together to make a writing community for the youth by dedicating their passion to this one program. This goes to show how important it is to be able to be part of a community for writers.
We believe that through community and passion, people can go beyond possibilities to create something meaningful.
Our team hopes that one day the experiences we had can spark other young writers from WRITIE POET.
EG: What are your goals for the organization? What do you imagine WRITIE POET will be doing five years from now?
SR: As I’ve mentioned, the goal of WRITIE POET is to offer a safe space for young writers to share their poems, where creativity can flourish all around the world. I can imagine WRITIE POET globally helping writers publish their works and help writers gain inspiration through others’ writings. I hope that WRITIE POET can become one of those main writing platforms for people to freely communicate with many writers. As WRITIE POET just started with writing events, I also hope that I can coordinate more events with the team to recognize amazing writers and to offer writers various prizes, such as journals to help them feel motivated in writing!
EG: Why do you think poetry is so important? What does it offer to the world?
SR: During the past few years, the popularity of poetry has declined drastically. These days, people are too caught up in their busy lives to even read a short poem. Poetry is so much more than words. Each and every poem conveys meanings and emotions we cannot describe in one word. Sometimes it is needed to use various metaphors, languages, punctuations, etc. to achieve creating a scene for readers. I think that is what makes poetry beautiful. Despite my life also being hectic, I get to feel most like me whenever I’m writing poems because I feel as if I’m truly expressing myself with my best potential. Everyone should learn to take a step back from the busy life and think deeper into what emotions one is feeling, what flavor one is tasting, what scent one is smelling, and what texture one is feeling. I bet that once we start expressing ourselves through poetry, those boring, simple days will start shining to become something special.
EG: Gen Z is having to step up in the world and fight for the causes it believes in and fight against some pretty restrictive laws that directly affect your generation. Do you see your organization providing a voice for Gen Z in this ongoing battle for change?
SR: I more than agree that WIRITE POET will provide a voice for Gen Z in our society. The society we live in is very diverse, and it is no surprise that we all have different opinions of how the government’s involvement in restrictive laws affects us
One thing for sure is that unjust laws can change.
We are the ones who should fight for change. To make changes, we need to put our words out there and listen to others’ words. WRITIE POET is a great community to fulfill the strength for change. As I mentioned before, poetry is a great way to convey others' emotions. Through publishing poems on our website and sharing one’s ideas all around the world, change can be made. Who knows how your writing can impact others? WRITIE POET is a safe place for all young writers to express themselves. Everyone is a writer.
EG: Please let us know where we can find more about WRITIE POET and the great work you are doing!
SR: More of WRITIE POET’s works can be seen on our website, our Instagram account, and our podcast. If there are any questions, feel free to email us at writiepoet@gmail.com! Our team is always open to questions, partnerships, feedback, or submissions.
Elizabeth Gracen is the owner of Flapper Press & Flapper Films.