In the summer of 2014, then New School graduate student Yahdon Israel spotted a stylish teenager on the subway absorbed in a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. He snapped a photo and posted it on Instagram with the caption “#literaryswag.” From this encounter on the train, he had the idea to start a whole Instagram account dedicated to well-dressed readers.
“One of the reasons why people don’t like reading is because how often do you see people doing it?” Israel said. “Visually, I thought it would be a cool stimulus to have.”
Israel is a writer who has written essays for Brooklyn Magazine, The New Inquiry, ESPNW and other publications. He also describes himself as a literary advocate, which is “not just someone who writes, but someone who’s invested in seeing better opportunities for writers,” he said.
Israel, 26, graduated with an MFA in creative writing at The New School last semester. During his time as a student, he worked to turn Literary Swag into an active group of passionate readers and writers meeting at the intersection of good style and good books.
“It’s validating…but you don’t get any of these articles when you don’t believe in what you’re doing,” Israel said. “To get that is just icing on the cake, but I was making the cake whether or not people were going to eat it.”
He encourages anyone to use the hashtag, which now has over 12,000 posts and counting. The account’s popularity is due in part to his interactions with his followers. He holds yearly Instagram competitions where the winner receives prize money from Israel’s student loans, and on his own popular Instagram account, Israel still keeps an eye out for great shots of readers and uploads pictures of his own outfits with a book he’s reading with the #literaryswag hashtag. He also posts interviews with writers, from Junot Diaz to Roxane Gay, in which he asks for their three favorite authors and three favorite clothing designers.
By building a literary community on Instagram and through a Literary Swag Book Club, Israel hopes to construct a new cultural mindset toward literature that would engage even non-readers. “The whole idea of Literary Swag is to make literature this generation’s hip-hop,” Israel said.
Israel and his work have been featured in several publications like Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post, which helped Literary Swag gain momentum.
“It’s validating…but you don’t get any of these articles when you don’t believe in what you’re doing,” Israel said. “To get that is just icing on the cake, but I was making the cake whether or not people were going to eat it.”
Israel said his experience at The New School prepared him for the work he does today by expanding his writing skills. Being a New School student also helped him get Literary Swag on its feet.
“I got to interview some writers who I would’ve never got to interview if I wasn’t at that school, and certain doors were opened because of the affiliation,” he said.
Israel also enjoyed learning from other New School students studying in different fields. “If I was going to change the way people read books, it required me to think outside of writing,” he said.
Photo: Julia Himmel; Illo: Alex Gilbeaux