Richard Siken has always been a fanfic aficionado

On August 7, 2023, acclaimed poet Richard Siken posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. This wouldn’t be unusual, except that the tweet was about fanfiction – more specifically, Siken’s own experience writing fanfiction.

“I tried it and my Destiel writes better than my Wincest,” wrote Sikenreferring to two very popular ones SupernaturalI ship. “My Johnlock is better than both.” (Johnlock is the BBC’s combination of John Watson and Sherlock Holmes Sherlock.)

And on Twitter (well, X, as CEO Elon Musk recently renamed it) and Tumblr, those familiar with how influential Siken’s work is in various fandom communities went wild.

You see, Siken’s poetry has long been a fundamental part of the fandom experience, especially for those who are extremely online. Fans of numerous different TV shows, movies, and games – especially those featuring large slash (man-man-pairs) ships – have for years added lines from his poetry as captions to their fan art, added to longing gif edits, or even titled their own fanfiction with it. It was surreal to see the poet not only acknowledging that he knows and approves of fanfiction, but that he actively participates in fandom.

This was especially surprising to younger fans, many of whom expressed surprise on Tumblr and X (née Twitter) that Siken is 1) alive and 2) not someone who lived 100 years ago. Siken had to follow up with a tweet reminding everyone that he is indeed alive and is also a poet of the 21st century.

Here’s the thing: Siken’s penchant for fanfiction isn’t new at all. In fact, the poet gave it a long interview The awl eight years ago, where he discussed everything Sherlock, Supernatural, and fandom related. He’s been quite open about what he likes about fanfiction and about writing his own fiction. In 2015 he was active on Tumblr and reblogged fan edits from Sherlock containing his quotesposts about his newly created AO3 accountt, and take polls on who would be on top in a John Watson and Sherlock Holmes dirty fic.

But in recent years, he’s been less active on social media, especially after suffering a serious stroke in 2019 (this could possibly explain why many younger fans thought he was no longer alive). He only just returned to the platform formally known as Twitter in July, which he says is because Siken Bot, the popular Twitter bot that posted snippets of his poetry went down and he had to fill in for it. (Siken Bot is now called Siken Poems, because it’s not a bot anymore, but is run by someone who schedules tweets in advance. Siken says she start working together).

It only took Siken a few weeks to throw himself fully back into social media and embrace the chaos of fan culture. The tweets from Johnlock and Destiel were just the beginning. He now actively responds to people on X and gives his opinion on other shows and combinations (eg Hannigram, the combination of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham Hannibal), And give writing advice, among other things.

Siken clearly understands fandom culture – and he also specifically understands what makes his poetry so appealing to fan artists and fiction writers. He even tweeted that fans can link lines of his poetry to just about any fandom image or combination and it works because his poems are “sad and drowsy and full of longing.” He then demonstrated this by recreating some of his most famous lines I can have Cheeseburger speak and put them on pictures of cats, and invite others to do the same.

So for anyone who’s ever used a Richard Siken quote on a gif set, as a fictional title, or as a caption to some fan art—or even made a funny post about his poetry—there’s a non-zero chance he’s got it. has seen . But have no fear; because judging by his attitude, there’s also a non-zero chance he was happy about it.