These are only words: a social network analysis on young Italian poets

Assuming that is difficult to give a specific definition of “professional poet” in Italian cultural context, where artistic professions are often defined “un-professional”, the paper explores the social dynamics and the interactions between young poets and the Italian poetic network. More specifically, 70 poets were contacted and directly questioned about their participation in poetic activities and their cultural path. Using Social Network Analysis approach, we obtained some preliminary information about roles and structure of the Italian poetic network. The preliminary results show us low density network with many isolated experiences; where traditional publishers are still determinant in the building of personal career path and in the supporting of distribution network in a market that tends to “squeeze out”, platforms and on-line journals are strongly emerging as places of co-production and co-distributions of the young poetry in Italy.