Richard Siken has always been a fanfic enthusiast

Richard Siken made a post on Twitter, the former social media site. This would not be out of the ordinary, except the tweet was about fanfiction — more specifically, Siken’s own fanfiction writing experience.

“I have tried it and my Destiel is better writing than my Wincest,” wrote SikenTwo very popular words. Supernatura“My Johnlock is better than both.” (Johnlock, the pairing of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from BBC’s series The Saint) “My Johnlock is better than both.” (Johnlock is the pairing of John Watson and Sherlock Holmes from BBC’s Sherlock.)

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

You see, Siken’s poetry has long been a fundamental part of the fandom experience, particularly for those who are extremely online. Fans across tons of different TV shows, movies, and games — particularly those with big slash (male-male pairings) ships — have added lines from his poetry as captions on their fanart for years, superimposed it on yearning gif edits, or even titled their own fanfiction with it. Surreal to witness the poet acknowledge fanfiction and also participate in it.

This was especially startling to younger fans, many of whom posted to Tumblr and X (née Twitter) expressing their surprise that Siken is 1) alive and 2) not some guy who lived 100 years ago. Siken had to follow up with a tweetHe is alive. And he’s a 21st-century poet.

Here’s the thing: Siken’s fondness for fanfiction isn’t new at all. The Awl published a detailed interview with the poet eight years prior, in which he talked about all things fanfiction. Sherlock, SupernaturalHe has been very open about what he loves about fanfiction and writing his own fic. He is very honest about his fanfiction love and how he writes it. In 2015, he used to be active on Tumblr and reblogged fan edits. SherlockThis included posting his quotations, announcing his newly created AO3 profile, and polling about the best character for a John Watson/Sherlock Holmes smut fic.

But in recent years, he’s been less active on social media, especially after he had a severe stroke in 2019 (this could potentially explain why many younger fans assumed he was not alive). It was only in July that he returned to Twitter, the former name of his platform. which he says is because Siken BotThe popular Twitter bot, which posted short snippets from his poetry, was down, and he needed to take over. Siken Poems is the new name for Siken Bot, as it’s no longer a robot, but is instead run by a person who pre-schedule tweets. Siken claims they are going to work together).

Siken took only a few short weeks to embrace fan culture and dive into the social media. Johnlock and Destiel’s tweets weren’t the only ones. Now he is actively responding to people who are on X and offering his opinions on other shows (for example, Hannigram, the pairing of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham from Hannibal“, and giving writing advice, among other things.

Siken clearly understands fandom culture — and he also specifically understands what it is about his poetry that is so appealing to fan artists and fic writers. It was even said that any pairing or image can be paired with his poetry. “sad and mopey and full of longing.”He then demonstrated his point by re-creating some of the most well known lines from I Can Has Cheezburger and placing them on top of pictures of cats. This was followed up with an invitation to others.

So, to anyone who has ever used a Richard Siken quote on a gifset, as a fic title, or as a caption on some fanart — or even made a funny post about his poetry — there is a non-zero chance he has seen it. But do not fear; because judging by his attitude, there’s also a non-zero chance he was delighted by it.