There's an Astro Poets Book in Your Future

National Public Radio introduces listeners to a new book in their future, co-written by the authors of the popular @Astropoets Twitter handle, poets Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky. The book isn't appearing on bookstore shelves say, tomorrow, but fans "can start getting excited about it. If they want to, I mean – no pressure" Lasky teases. Although Dimitrov and Lasky recall different versions of their project's origin story, NPR correspondent Danny Nett explains, "New York City-based poets Dorothea Lasky and Alex Dimitrov — the voices behind the viral Twitter account 'Astro Poets' — aim to change the way the Internet sees the zodiac." Let's pick up there: 

A Sagittarius is no longer just the traveler who needs to watch his spending this week. He's the guy inviting everyone at gay pride to a party he won't show up to. He's the human equivalent of a cactus, or an apostrophe. Or the cigarette emoji.

Since creating Astro Poets last November, Lasky and Dimitrov have amassed a collection of more than 186,000 Twitter followers, a monthly advice column for W Magazine and — via their most recent announcement, a new book deal.

"We're really interested in a [Twitter] account that speaks to 2017, in addition to a kind of timeless astrological knowledge," Dimitrov says. "It seems foolish to think that astrology can't fit into how we communicate now, which is through pop culture, gifs."

Dimitrov says a key to their success is in understanding what makes each sign what it is — the way good novelists know what motivates their characters.

"I think we're definitely empathetic of all the signs, but we also sort of know how to read them in a very loving way," Dimitrov says. "You know, we read ourselves constantly on our Twitter, and it's part of the fun."

In addition to the pair's grasp of pop culture and the zodiac, Lasky says there's something in their background as professional poets that resonates with people on the Internet.

"There must just be something about the way we're interpreting it, our brand of humor," she says. "We have experience saying things not always funny, but maybe sad and funny, in short snippets and lines. Maybe that gives us a skill already that, when people read it, they're attracted to."

Learn more at NPR.