Newspaper Blackout

( 1 )

Overview

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 ...

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More About This Book

Overview

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.

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Editorial Reviews

New York magazine
“Highbrow/brilliant…It’s better than it sounds.”
NPR's Morning Edition
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.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Sort of like Michelangelo carving away the marble that imprisoned what he saw within.
Toronto's National Post
One can imagine taking up blackout poetry on their daily bus commute in place of sudoku or the crossword puzzle.
The Ephemerist
"Some of the results are hilarious, some are profound and even unsettling, but they are never bland or boring."
Wall Street Journal
"…a kind of Rorschach approach to reading newspapers…"
The New Yorker
"[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…"
Texas Monthly
"…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."
Radio Exile
"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."
Austin Chronicle
"[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…"
The Ephermerist
“…a kind of Rorschach approach to reading newspapers…”
Radio ExileRadio Exile
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.
Morning Edition - NPR
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.
New York Magazine
"Highbrow/brilliant…It’s better than it sounds."
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780061732973
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 4/13/2010
  • Pages: 173
  • Sales rank: 322,197
  • Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Austin Kleon is a writer, cartoonist, and designer. His Newspaper Blackout poems have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, in Toronto's National Post, and all over the Web. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Meghan.

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Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing 1 Customer Review

  • Posted May 18, 2010

    Newspapers are Still Good for Something

    It sounds easy enough. Take a newspaper article and block off a section two columns wide by 5 or 6 inches long. Look for words or phrases that speak to you and draw a box around them. Flesh out your poem using other words from the article and then "blackout" the remainder.

    Austin Kleon did not invent this method but he did take it and run with it. At first read the poems seem simple. But after you get out your own marker and try your hand at it, you realize how talented this guy really is. Some are funny, some are sentimental, all are thought provoking.

    Buy the book. Also buy a newspaper and a sharpie. Go ahead, blackout a poem. You know you want to.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
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