Newspaper Blackout

From the New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like An Artist

“Some of the results are hilarious, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring.” — Ephermerist

Newspaper article + sharpie = Newspaper Blackout Poetry: Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs a newspaper and a permanent marker and eliminates the words he doesn’t need. Fans of Not Quite What I Was Planning and Post Secret will love these unique and compelling poems culled from Austin’s popular website.

Poet and cartoonist Austin Kleon has discovered a new way to read between the lines. Armed with a daily newspaper and a permanent marker, he constructs through deconstruction—eliminating the words he doesn't need to create a new art form: Newspaper Blackout poetry.

Highly original, Kleon's verse ranges from provocative to lighthearted, and from moving to hysterically funny, and undoubtedly entertaining. The latest creations in a long history of "found art," Newspaper Blackout will challenge you to find new meaning in the familiar and inspiration from the mundane.

Newspaper Blackout contains original poems by Austin Kleon, as well as submissions from readers of Kleon's popular online blog and a handy appendix on how to create your own blackout poetry.

Instead of starting with a blank page, poet Austin Kleon grabs the New York Times and a permanent marker and eliminates the words he doesn’t need. - NPR's Morning Edition

One can imagine taking up blackout poetry on their daily bus commute in place of sudoku or the crossword puzzle. - Toronto's National Post

Sort of like Michelangelo carving away the marble that imprisoned what he saw within. - Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Part ‘writing with constrictions,’ part happy accident, part found art, part design challenge...the collection...gives a well rounded and consistent view into a guy most of us would want to buy a beer.” - Radio Exile

“…a kind of Rorschach approach to reading newspapers…” - Wall Street Journal

“[A] sense of play infuses the poems—short pieces that touch on first sex and outer space, in a voice that slips from funny to elegiac…” - Austin Chronicle

“…hidden bits of Zen lite that occasionally bump up against brilliance….Kleon manages to turn the paper of record into visually stark nuggets of poetry and wit. All the Muse That’s Fit to Print, you might say.” - Texas Monthly

“Highbrow/brilliant…It’s better than it sounds.” - New York magazine

“[The poems] resurrect the newspaper when everyone else is declaring it dead…like a cross between magnetic refrigerator poetry and enigmatic ransom notes, funny and zen-like, collages of found art…” - The New Yorker

“Some of the results are hilarious, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring.” - The Ephemerist