Taylor Swift's impact on Poetry

Taylor Swift announced her most recent album on February 4, 2024 at the Grammy awards. She also revealed the name of the album on stage during her acceptance speech for album of the year: Tortured Poets Department. But did this announcement actually make the poets happy? In other words, did it spark an interest in poetry for Swifties in Canada and was that reflected in sales or library circulation? Let’s find out with the help of our SalesData and LibraryData services.

Want to know more about Taylor Swift, we invited Jarin Pintana, speaker at the first Swiftposium, to come and talk to us about Taylor Swift and her impact on the book industry in our latest podcast episode. Listen to the podcast or read the transcript here.

Poetry sales in Canada

First up, sales. The Non-Fiction / Poetry category got off to an up and down start in 2024 and sales of Poetry titles did not pick up immediately after the album announcement. It wasn’t until the beginning of March that the Poetry category saw a sustained trend upwards. But overall, Poetry sales rose 12% from the week ending February 4 to the week ending April 21.

Line graph showing the unit sales of the Non-Fiction / Poetry BISAC category from the beginning of 2024 through the week ending April 21, 2024.

Poetry performance in libraries

Loans of Poetry titles have shown a much more pronounced trend upwards — a 92% increase since the Grammys on February 4 to the week ending April 14. Perhaps more Swifties use the library?

Line graph showing the library loans for the Non-Fiction / Poetry BISAC category from the beginning of 2024 through the week ending April 14, 2024.

But titles can only be loaned out as much as there are copies, so what’s a Swiftie to do if the volume they want is already checked out? Put a hold on it, of course. So let’s see what happened with holds in libraries across Canada.

Also on the rise! Holds for the Poetry category were up 63% from the Grammy’s on February 4 to the week ending April 14.

Line graph showing the library holds of the Non-Fiction / Poetry BISAC category from the beginning of 2024 through the week ending April 14, 2024.

Top selling and circulated Poetry titles

So what are the top Poetry titles in terms of sales and circulation? Well, they’re not the ones referenced by Taylor, but Swifties weren’t to know which poets she was referring to until they got their first listen to the album when it released on April 19.

Collage: The cover image for The Way Forward by yung pueblo & The cover image for Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur.

Top borrowed

  1. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur 🍁

  2. The Iliad by Homer

  3. Home Body by Rupi Kaur 🍁

  4. The Odyssey by Homer

  5. Dearly by Margaret Atwood 🍁

 Top selling

  1. The Way Forward by yung pueblo

  2. A Gentle Reminder by Bianca Sparacino 🍁

  3. A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje 🍁

  4. Devotions by Mary Oliver

  5. Healing Through Words by Rupi Kaur 🍁

 

Can this increase in Poetry interest be attributed to Taylor Swift fans or was it all an unrelated coincidence? Perhaps we’ll never know. But seeing the Taylor Swift effect on every other industry she mentions it’s at least plausible the fans are reading more poetry.