Close Reader is an app for reading and learning about poetry with the help of generative AI.
Almost all the poetry that students read in English literature programs can be found online for free, but very few readers take advantage of its availability. One barrier is the poor user experience offered by the websites that host these texts; another is that the interpretive guidance readers need is largely restricted to those who can afford post-secondary education. The internet has democratized access to poetry, but not the means to read and understand it. My project tries to bridge this gap by providing a visually appealing and illuminating environment for anyone who wants to explore the poetic tradition.
- General readers:
- Curious about the poetic tradition, but don’t know where to start
- Looking for a clean, well-designed reading environment that looks good on mobile devices
- Want help understanding and interpreting what they’re reading
- Clone repository
- Install dependencies for both client and server
- Follow instructions in .env.example for setting local host, cors origin, etc.
- Using Drizzle, run migration file and seed data
- TypeScript
- Sass/CSS
- HTML
- Vite
- Node
- Postgres (via Supabase)
- Axios
- Express
- Drizzle
- React
- React Hamburger
- React Router