The heart of Stanza
The Stage is your home feed, where you read, listen and respond to poetry. It opens when you open Stanza, and it's the first item in the bottom bar on phones and in the sidebar on computers.
The tabs
Two tabs are always at the top: For You and Explore. The others are one tap away, under Browse on the web or the overflow menu in the app.
For You
A feed chosen for you. It weighs how fresh a poem is, who wrote it (people you follow and engage with count for more), how readers are responding, and how well it matches your taste. It also mixes in the occasional pleasant surprise from someone you haven't read before, and spreads poems across many poets so no single voice crowds the feed. The more you read and react, the better it gets. See "How the Feed Learns".
Explore
Public poems from across Stanza, newest first. No ranking, just the current of the whole community.
Following
Poems from people you follow, in the order they were published.
Trending
Public poems getting the most response right now, weighted towards recent work.
Inner Circles
Posts from the circles you belong to.
Organizations
Work published by organizations on Stanza, where organizations are available.
Reading on a phone
On a phone, the Stage is immersive: one poem fills the screen, and you swipe to move to the next. Tap a poem to show or hide the reading controls; in the app, that same tap reveals the poem-size slider. See "Poem Size". Your reactions sit along the edge, ready for your thumb.
Reading on a computer
On a wider screen, poems appear as cards in a scrolling feed. Open any card to read the poem on its own page, with its letters, margin notes and critiques.
What you'll see on a poem
- The poet's byline (unless the poem is anonymous).
- Reactions: Cheer, Encore and Tomato, with counts. Press and hold a reaction to see what it means, and your Encore budget.
- Who reacted: where the poet allows it, tap a count such as "12 cheers – see who".
- The ⋯ menu: Save, Add to a list…, Read in another language (when offered), Write a critique, Hide from feed, Report and more.
Ads and sponsored poems
Ads help keep Stanza free. They appear as cards between poems, clearly labelled Ad or Sponsored; tap the label to learn why you're seeing one. Stanza Pro removes ads.
Make it yours
Filter the Stage to written or spoken work, turn auto-play on or off, choose whether to see mature content, and set your interests and mood under Settings › Stage. See "Stage Settings".
Something you'd rather not see? Use "Hide from feed" in a poem's ⋯ menu, mute the poet from their profile, or add muted words in Settings › Privacy.