joy of txt
The Guardian has opened its second text message poetry competition today - text them a poem of less than 160 characters and you're in with a chance of winning a grand. Anything that encourages brevity in poetry can only be a good thing. Last year's winner, Hetty Hughes, also gives a pithy analysis of why texting is so popular in a brief interview - "People form their own vocabularies and ways of expressing themselves through text. There is an art to composing a good text message, be it romantic, witty, or otherwise. People seem to have become empowered to express themselves as they want to, with as much regard to grammar, semantics and form as suits them." I'm still waiting for the first novel to be written entirely in text messages...
