160: Texting and Poetry

160 is a new form of poetry based on SMS messaging (texting). Every poem consists of exactly 160 characters, including spaces: the maximum length of one SMS message (at least in western languages). 160 was developed in the Netherlands by Sofie Cerutti, a poet and historian living in Amsterdam. Although many forms of ‘sms-poetry’ are to be found in the world, usually defined as ‘short poems’ or ‘poems in sms language’, this specific form 'exactly 160' has never been used so far (if I'm mistaken, please contact me). In the Netherlands the 160 is now being explored by poets and becoming increasingly popular among amateurs as well. Since November 2006 a 160 is published daily in the Dutch newspaper nrc.next and on the website www.precies160.nl. In fall 2007 a series of 160 poetry collections will be started by Meulenhoff publishers. Furthermore, 160 contests were and will be organized, 160 poetry-education is being set up for high school pupils and the 160 will be present at many (poetry and other) festivals. One-minute movies are now being made showing the poems and the concept of the genre – a preliminary version of these is shown at the upcoming festival.