“Poetry and Data,” A Call for Papers for a Panel at SMU Symposium on Poetic Form organized by SMU Project Poëtica to be held on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas on February 23 and 24, 2026. 

Does access to data change the way we read poetry? Should it change the way we read poetry? How do scholarly tools and digital resources that make data in historical documents, primary, and secondary texts more accessible affect our relationship to data?) This panel is interested in ways of thinking about the intersection of data and poetics, whether historic or contemporary, theoretical or practical. Topics may include data mining, AI, X, Instagram poets, erasure poetry, surface reading, and poetics, but are not limited to these. Participants will include Meredith Martin, author of the recent monograph, Poetry’s Data: Digital Humanities and the History of Prosody (2025 Princeton UP). Alternatively, papers might consider how poets manipulate data as a creative practice. Please submit a 250 word abstract by May 15, 2025 to Rosanne Brooks (rosanneb@smu.edu) and indicate “Poetry and Data” in the subject heading.