Swift Lits
Kristie Frederick Daugherty
Britton Rae
Dear Readers,
Welcome to Swift Lits!
We are ENCHANTED to welcome you to the first LITERARY JOURNAL and BOOK CLUB with a Taylor Swift theme!
Britton Rae, writer and professor, and Kristie Frederick Daugherty, poet, editor, and professor, are friends who love to spend time analyzing Taylor's lyrics in the same manner as the books they love. On one of our marathon phone calls, we had the idea to start a literary journal and a book club with Swifties specifically in mind (there ARE an estimated 300 million of us, after all!).
As the world's leading Shakespeare scholar Sir Jonathan Bate wrote in the foreword to Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift, "But can a mere songwriter, who does not intend to publish their lyrics, be called a poet? Of course they can. Poetry emerged out of the oral tradition and always returns to the rhythmic voice... In this regard, Taylor Swift is more (Bob) Dylan than (Paul) McCartney. She has
been writing poetry since she was a teenager. Her inspiration nearly always comes from a verbal idea. She writes out the words then creates the music, often with assistance from a collaborator. The poem, it may be said, precedes the song."
When Kristie was presenting at the first Taylor Swift academic conference at Indiana University in fall 2023, the technology glitched as she stood at the podium ready to speak. As the tech team worked to fix it, she asked the crowd, "What is your favorite Taylor song and why?" and was amazed to see nearly every hand in the full auditorium raise. Usually people are hesitant in such settings, but the crowd was full of Swifties who wanted to share their favorite Taylor lyrics. In that moment Kristie realized how many Swifties there are all over the world ready to "speak now."
For Britton, the millions of comments she has received on her TikTok posts illustrate how ready Swifties are to talk all things Taylor lyrics, especially in relation to literature. Britton is at the top of the analyzing-Taylor-as-literature field, as she was approached by ABC and the Associated Press after the announcement of The Life of A Showgirl and asked to give her take on the album's title.
And thus, Swift Lits was born out of our desire to see writing sparks fly worldwide as you send us your poems and short fiction pieces that respond to the lyrics of The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department and the English teacher (marrying the gym teacher!), Dr. Taylor Alison Swift.
We will regularly update the Prompts and Submissions page. Prompt 1 is up now - please see the page for information on submissions and the submission link!
Britton and Kristie are active on TikTok and Instagram, so please check out our links on the About Us page and follow us! Also, be sure to follow the new Swift Lits TikTok and Instagram pages - links are below! We will be reading chosen submissions on there and also offering "swift" analyses of Taylor's lyrics in conjunction with books and poems that we think Swifties will love!
Finally, each month we will recommend one fiction book, one non-fiction book, and one book of poetry for our Swift Lits Book Club! We hope you find our thoughtfully chosen picks as brilliant as we do! September picks are ready for you now!
Each month we will explain on our Swift Lits TikTok and Instagram pages why we made our Swift Lits Book Club picks - they will always have an invisible string to Taylor's lyrics!
Please join us, two book-loving, language-obsessed Swifties whose lives, like yours, have been made incredibly richer because of the songs of Taylor Swift. The Swiftie community is a joyous one, and the thread that connects it is words, so no matter if you are a "poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy" or if you "go to secret gardens" we have this in common: Swifties love language.
Grab your glitter gel pen, quill pen, or fountain pen, and send us your best work!
Love,
Britton & Kristie
Follow the Swift Lits!
Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift
Reading the poems in Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift while looking at this list of the songs which each poem responds to is great way to learn how to respond to Taylor's songs for our weekly writing prompts! Each poem in this book responds to a specific Taylor song without using direct lyrics or titles - can you decode the poems?
SPOILER ALERT:
Click on the image of Invisible Strings above for the list of the poem/song pairings! The link to purchase is on the Swift Lits Book Club page.
Kristie Frederick Daugherty is pictured telling Andrea Swift about Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift on the last night of The Eras Tour in Vancouver on Dec. 8. Andrea listened as Kristie told Andrea how 113 of the best of contemporary poets - including six Pulitzer Prize winners - came together to write poems in response to Taylor's songs, and how the world's leading Shakespeare scholar Sir Jonathan Bate wrote the foreword in which he calls Taylor "a true poet." Kristie was able to give Andrea a copy of Invisible Strings. It was beyond a magical moment.
Click on the above image to play The Taylor Swift Poetry Quiz from The New York Times!
An excerpt from the introduction of Invisible Strings by Kristie Frederick Daugherty: I am a debut-era Swiftie—I remember the first time I heard Taylor Swift’s young voice singing “Teardrops on My Guitar” from my daughter’s CD player. I have attended many of Swift’s concerts, from her first headlining tour, Fearless, all the way through to her Nashville and Cincinnati stops of the Eras tour. At the kickoff stop of the Fearless tour in Evansville, Indiana, I was sitting with my daughter at the end of an aisle, and at one point Swift brushed my arm as she made her way back to the stage after starting a song at the top of the stadium. While I knew then that Swift’s lyrics had staying power, I had no idea that Swift would become a singer whose words would move hundreds of millions of fans across the globe. And I certainly had no idea that her lyrics and the art form in which I write—poetry—would one day intersect to take the shape of this anthology. I like to think of the slight brush of Swift as she walked past me in Roberts Stadium on April 23, 2009, as foreshadowing of this anthology. It is pretty to think so. In addition to being a Swiftie, I am also an ardent reader and writer of contemporary poetry. And I know—as Sir Jonathan Bate discusses in the foreword—how well Swift has trained her fans in the art of close reading. I’ll never forget the magic of sitting up high with my friend Leslie Wilhelmus on the second night of the Cincinnati Eras tour at Paycor Stadium, as sixty-five thousand Swifties sang along to every single word of a forty-four-song set. Swifties also recognize the literary devices of poetry weaving through Swift’s rich discography. Swift has taught her fans to read her lyrics carefully, attending to syntax, symbol, and sound, just as poets learn to read literature. Swifties spend countless hours discussing Swift’s songs with one another, on social media, and even in the increasingly common Taylor Swift classes—Stephanie Burt’s Harvard course “Taylor Swift and Her World” is just one example. Swifties have a love language, and I am fluent.
Britton's Substack: The Sensationalist
Click on the image above to subscribe to Britton's fabulous Substack: The Sensationalist!
Britton on TikTok!
Click on the above pic of Britton posing in her Showgirl era to read her latest poetry offering: "The Life of a Showgirl Poem"
Britton is known for her literary, analytical TikTok videos which discuss Taylor's lyrics and other things Taylor - she was featured on ABC and by the Associated Press when Taylor announced The Life of A Showgirl!
An excerpt from Britton's forthcoming novel: I never would have believed you, no not in a million years. On this very day last year, I had just begun to type the first words of my manuscript, “He Who Kills,” a psychological thriller centered around a recently widowed woman who finds herself responsible for the death of her husband after a severe episode of misdiagnosed postpartum psychosis. I had dreamed of becoming a published author since I could remember. Even as a child my nose remained stuck in a book. I never found myself interested in dolls, games, or toys. As a teenager, no boy could grasp my attention longer than the men I could find within the crisp pages of a novel. I practically flunked every course in college aside from English and creative writing. Even after all of those years wrapped in the warm blanket of the literary world, I have found my dreams imprisoned to the confinement of a twice weekly column in the “Women’s Home Journal” magazine. Every idea I had for a novel was scrapped by the following business day, only to give way to a new, better idea that had graced my consciousness in the wee hours of the night as I attempted the most difficult task for any aspiring writer; sleep. I can’t stick with things. I just can’t. One idea comes as fast as the next, and ultimately they all end up being trash… until “He Who Kills”, that is. This was it. My Magnum Opus. The only idea I had that was worthy of attempting a shot at landing a pitch with Holden Finnick. THE Holden Finnick.
