Stanza Platform Overview: Features & Fact Sheet

Current as of October 1, 2026 (version 2.97.4).

Platform Information

Name — Stanza (Stanza Ink)
Company — LyCan Creative Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Website — stanza.ink
Category — Social platform for poetry and spoken word
Founded — 2026
Current version — 2.97.4
Price — Free, with an optional Stanza Pro subscription (14-day free trial)
Platforms — iOS (iPhone and iPad, on the App Store), Android (on Google Play), the web at stanza.ink (installable as an app). Native desktop apps for Windows and macOS are in development
Age — Members must be 13 or older

Text composer — Standard rich-text and Advanced plain-text modes, with line numbers for poets who work line by line
Spoken Word Studio — Record or upload audio, with a waveform view and speech-to-text transcription
Writing Space — A private, offline-friendly place to draft and journal, with auto-save and optional streak reminders. Nothing is shared until you publish
Presentation — A background colour or image and ambient sound for each piece
Poetic elements — Tag a piece with its form, style, meter, rhyme scheme and devices, each with a short definition
Anonymous posting — Publish without your name or profile being shown to readers
Content warnings — Authors tag sensitive themes, and readers choose what they see

The Stage — A personalized feed with an immersive full-screen reading mode and adjustable poem size
Search — Find work by keyword or by meaning across poems, poets and sounds, with cards that explain poetic forms and terms
Translation — Read a poem in your own language on demand. Machine translations are always labelled, with the poet's original one tap away, and poets can switch translation off
Discover and Community — Curated picks, plus circles, lists and organizations to explore

Reactions — Cheer (applause, unlimited), Encore (deliberately scarce: 8 a month, 15 with Stanza Pro; taking one back does not return it) and Tomato (an honest negative signal). Readers can react to poems, reading lists, podcast episodes and poets. A poet can only be cheered, and a list takes no Encore
Interaction lists — Tap a count to see who cheered, encored, reposted or quoted. Readers who keep their activity private are counted but never named, so a count is the same for everyone who sees it. Saves and shares are never named. Only the poet, on Stanza Pro, can see who threw a Tomato at their own work. Poets can hide these lists on any piece
Correspondence — Replies are letters to the poet, with threaded exchanges and a Poet badge when the author writes back
Marginalia — Notes anchored to a single line of a poem, shown in its margin. Poets can close the margin on any piece
Structured critiques — Scored feedback across craft dimensions, with notes on lines, stanzas and audio timestamps

Saves — Save poems and poets privately to a Saved view that only you can see
Reading lists — Curated, shareable collections that hold poems, poets, replies, podcast episodes, live performances and other lists. Episodes and live replays play inside the list, and authors decide whether others may add their work
Confections — Small themed gifts for another poet, including one that recommends a poet to a friend. They can be shared by link, even with people not yet on Stanza
Reposts, quotes and share cards — Carry a poem to your followers, or share it beyond Stanza as a designed image

Following and friends — Follow poets, with optional approval for new followers
Multiple profiles — Up to three profiles per account
Visibility — Public, Followers, Friends, Circle or Only me, with a default you set for new poems and lists
Activity audiences — Choose separately who sees your reactions, replies, curation and follows. Preview how your activity looks to a stranger, a follower or a friend, and keep your Tomatoes to yourself if you like
Inner Circles — Private groups with roles, entry controls and members-only feeds
Badges — Recognition for milestones, including margin notes, correspondence, sounds and poetic elements
Notifications — Push and in-app notifications, grouped by the kind of attention they need, so you can quiet one kind without muting the rest

Podcasts — Followable podcast hubs with episodes
Live performances — Perform live with real-time reactions and gifts from the audience, and replays afterwards
Organizations — Official presences for journals, presses, schools and collectives, which can publish and feature members' work with shared credit and send newsletters to followers
Open calls — Organizations invite submissions and judge them in one place. An anonymous entry stays anonymous to its judges

15 Encores a month, compared with 8 on the free plan
Ad-free browsing
Deeper analytics: impressions, reading time, 30-day trends and audience insights. Every poet sees their own views and reactions for free
See who threw a Tomato at your own work
Higher limits on drafts and circles, and eligibility for the Spotlight
An Organizations plan adds an organization profile, open calls and organization analytics

Press inquiries: Ink Press, press@stanza.ink

Press kit: press.stanza.ink