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 co... read full description
reviews
Oct 06, 2011
Kasandra
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Kleon's debut is a collection of found poetry from the pages of The New York Times. It's gotten rave reviews and been featured on NPR and in The New Yorker, so clearly he's appealing to a wide audience with his work. He "blacks out" the words he doesn't want and keeps the rest, a technique used by many former writers, which he is kind enough to list in his forward.
This results in some pretty silly poems, and many truly funny ones. Unfortunately, when you use this te More...
Jul 25, 2010
Beth
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I am in love with this book and want to have it's babies. Newspaper Blackout is a collection of poems, loosely arranged by theme in a narrative thread that spans childhood through young adulthood, dealing with subjects such as the school locker room, first romance, and the dreariness of the office cubicle. What makes this book unique is the author crafted the poems essentially through editing another's words - newspaper articles, specifically. After establishing an anchor point, other words were
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May 28, 2010
Jessica
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I think this is the best idea! Here's how NPR summarizes the idea behind Newspaper Blackout: "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."
Newspaper Blackout is a handy little book. It opens with brief history of altered works - the art of making art out of existing art. Google "altered books" and you'll get a glimpse of just how versatile and cool this genre i More...
Newspaper Blackout is a handy little book. It opens with brief history of altered works - the art of making art out of existing art. Google "altered books" and you'll get a glimpse of just how versatile and cool this genre i More...
May 21, 2010
Marie
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Newspaper Blackout is a collection of poems by Austin Kleon. Instead of starting with a blank piece of paper, he uses the newspaper and eliminates the words he doesn't need. From the back of the book: "Newspaer article + permanent marker = Newspaper Blackout Poem".
I'm not much of a poetry fan, but I loved this book. I found Kleon's style intriguing and like nothing else I've seen before. The book is fun, unusual and totally approachable. At first, I found a few of t More...
I'm not much of a poetry fan, but I loved this book. I found Kleon's style intriguing and like nothing else I've seen before. The book is fun, unusual and totally approachable. At first, I found a few of t More...
Apr 27, 2010
Dawn
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I won a free copy of this book through the goodreads "First Reads" program and I was really excited. I had seen a writeup about the book and was intrigued. I have to say, I love it. I just pick the book up, open a page at random, and get sucked in.
The premise is deceptively simple: author, artist and poet Austin Kleon sits down with a page of newspaper and a black sharpie. By blacking out the words he doesn't need, he creates a visually interesting landscape dotted with More...
The premise is deceptively simple: author, artist and poet Austin Kleon sits down with a page of newspaper and a black sharpie. By blacking out the words he doesn't need, he creates a visually interesting landscape dotted with More...
Apr 20, 2010
Cody
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I am not much on poetry. Not that I don't like it. I just read very little of it except for an occasional visit with Rilke, Sexton or Neruda.
In the musical GYPSY, three strippers sing about the need for a gimmick to "get ahead" in their business. The gimmick here is "newspaper blackout" poetry. A technique where all you need is a copy of an old newspaper and a black magic marker(s) to create poetry.
Kleon's idea works so beautifully that you even fo More...
In the musical GYPSY, three strippers sing about the need for a gimmick to "get ahead" in their business. The gimmick here is "newspaper blackout" poetry. A technique where all you need is a copy of an old newspaper and a black magic marker(s) to create poetry.
Kleon's idea works so beautifully that you even fo More...
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May 03, 2010
Lori
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Review copy from author/publisher
So. This was one of those books I knew I had to get my hands on the moment I heard about it. And a big thank you goes out to author Austin Kleon for so wonderfully helping a copy find it's way to my doorstep.
I'm ashamed to admit that I broke my review rule for this collection. I placed it right on the top of the pile. I know I shouldn't have, but I just couldn't help myself. I started reading it in the car on the way to the chinese buffet More...
So. This was one of those books I knew I had to get my hands on the moment I heard about it. And a big thank you goes out to author Austin Kleon for so wonderfully helping a copy find it's way to my doorstep.
I'm ashamed to admit that I broke my review rule for this collection. I placed it right on the top of the pile. I know I shouldn't have, but I just couldn't help myself. I started reading it in the car on the way to the chinese buffet More...
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Nov 12, 2011
Ryan
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This is one of the most unique and inspiring collections of poems I own and I will never regret buying it. The works in this collection are funny, heartwarming, intriguing, and sad which makes reading it enjoyable. Kleon’s poetry is the product of the New York Times and a black sharpie: each piece is a blacked out chunk of the paper, leaving only the words that form the poem. As an aspiring writer, this book serves as a lesson in word choice, in deciding what words best serve your poem and how i
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Nov 10, 2010
Scott
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To some extent I like the idea of these poems more than I like the poems. This is the kind of punk rock DIY stuff I am really into. Repurposing. Mash-Ups. Literary theft. This is a very slick idea and it just looks cool. This would also make a great teen writing activity.
However, most of the poems are just snarky oneliners. It's like what frat brothers would do while drunk or bored. Which is disappointing. Kleon only really offers a few really great and poignant poems. The contest win More...
However, most of the poems are just snarky oneliners. It's like what frat brothers would do while drunk or bored. Which is disappointing. Kleon only really offers a few really great and poignant poems. The contest win More...
May 14, 2010
Nicola
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Just made my own newspaper blackout!!! Inhaled quite a few sharpy fumes, but it was definitely worth it. I started with a page in my local paper with articles on a stolen cross in the Mojave Desert and an approaching Phish concert and ended up with a dark, absurd poem about "scalping." So much fun to let your mind go, fasten on "an anchor," and see what happens to the page from there. Phrases leap columns, words want to borrow a letter from other words, hilarities accrue. Thi
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May 22, 2010
austin kleon makes poems by taking a sharpie to newspaper articles. it's simple but powerful, good for people who love poetry and people who love it but never seem to get around to reading any (like me).
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Apr 29, 2010
Brandon
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This was a fun read. Each poem stands on it's own, but when read in the narrative context of the book as a whole they together became more than the sum of their parts. The poems find a niche resting at the crossroads of the whimsical and the profound. The origin of the poems mitigates any platitudinal line to mere amusement that such could be found within the Times, and when a poem touches the heart, that amusement transfigures into awe that it was there, under our noses the entire time, needing
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May 06, 2010
Luke
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I was excited when I heard that I had won this book from Goodreads First Reads, and it turned out better than expected. The concept behind the poems in this book is that they are created by selecting phrases and words from two columns of newspaper and blacking out the unwanted parts. It makes for both an interesting and entertaining read. After finishing the book I used the how-to section to create some of my own. I discovered that it is harder that it looks to get a great poem! I thoroughly rec
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Dec 11, 2011
Aneesa
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When Andrea found this book in a sidewalk free box and brought it home for me, I was already a fan of Kleon's blog and had read several of his newspaper blackout poems (mostly horoscopes), so I knew how entertaining and moving they could be. The technique is really not all that different from just writing a poem from scratch, if you ask me. But I like his attitude toward it: the book includes an introduction to the history of blackout poetry (not that he knew it when he started, but bloggers mad
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Jun 29, 2011
Yasmine
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Newspaper blackout is basically when a person takes a block of text (from a newspaper) and a black marker, and starts blacking out the words they don't need, only to end up with something completely different than what they started out with; instead of starting with a white blank page, you start with a page filled with words and you take your pick without having much flexibility… and ta-da! You have a poem.
I really like how the author went over the history of writing methods that are More...
I really like how the author went over the history of writing methods that are More...
Aug 26, 2011
Brandy
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The hardest part of writing poetry is finding the words. Austin Kleon’s found a secret: the words are already there. With a black Sharpie, Kleon finds the poetry hidden a pile of newspapers, just waiting for him to cross out the words he doesn’t need. Mixed into the daily journalism, "we are all schoolboys and schoolgirls staggering under the weight of dream-stomping adults."
On my list of high school booktalks for the fall, and a potential program idea for the spring.
On my list of high school booktalks for the fall, and a potential program idea for the spring.
Aug 31, 2011
Ayne
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A most unusual way of writing poetry; instead of starting with a blank page, Kleon constructs by deconstruction. Using a thick permanent marker, he blacks out text from "The New York Times" that he doesn't need; the resulting words create poems that are spare yet elegant. The book also includes submissions from readers of the author's online blog as well as an appendix on how to create your own blackout poetry. An unusual and highly creative literary endeavor.
Apr 22, 2010
Unky
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Apr 22, 2010
Paul
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Discovered this through a recent newspaper assignment. Just a mention of a "Dadaist bar game" to be played after a local poetry and fiction reading. Austin Kleon takes sharpy to newspaper and creates poems by blacking out the words he doesn't need. It's so perfectly simple and appealed to my love of both wordplay and puzzles. I'll definitely be trying my hand at this.
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May 12, 2011
Alex
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The poems themselves are, for the most part, interesting and fun to read. The author, Austin Kleon, is unapologetic about the impact of his "discovery" of Blackout poetry and has no problem patting himself on the back multiple times in the intro & outro of the book. He tries to soften it with an "I'm just an ordinary guy..." type of tone, but the ego is obvious, and gets pretty obnoxious by the end.
Oct 31, 2010
Beth
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Armed with a newspaper and a magic marker, Austin Kleon makes the process of writing poetry more about chiseling away instead of starting from scratch. I am a huge fan of found poetry and have my students create found and headline poems every April during National Poetry Month. What I always find when students perform these exercises is that at first they think the assignment is just for fun, but then end up creating something really profound.
The idea is the same in Newspaper Blac More...
The idea is the same in Newspaper Blac More...
Dec 24, 2011
Aubree
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I was so intrigued by this when I found the website that I requested my local library purchase it. They completed my request very quickly so I got right to work reading the book. I am not into poetry at all, and I read this book in one setting. I didn't like the sexual nature of some of the poems, but others were clever, though-provoking, or downright funny. I am going to be trying my own version of blackout poetry ASAP.
Feb 06, 2012
Becky
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This idea is so simple, but I believe these are true poems (some stronger than others, but all interesting). I like the challenge of making them from words that are already there -- sometimes in the same order, other times using a white line so your eye knows which order to read the words (occasionally, it's not left-to-right, top-to-bottom).
A couple favorite quotes from the "how to" section at the end:
"The solution to any writer's block is to place some c More...
A couple favorite quotes from the "how to" section at the end:
"The solution to any writer's block is to place some c More...
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Apr 20, 2011
Jill
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I love the concept of this book. Instead of newspapers, I've been doing Black Out Poetry in a used book that I had two copies of. It's fascinating, and is the right size to tuck into my purse and work on when I'm waiting for this or that around town.
I didn't love Kleon's poetry itself. How rude! I liked mine better.
But thank you Austin. Fantastic concept.
Writing is what you take out.
I didn't love Kleon's poetry itself. How rude! I liked mine better.
But thank you Austin. Fantastic concept.
Writing is what you take out.
Sep 02, 2010
Ogreart
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I have followed Kleon's blog for a couple of years now. Seeing these poems all collected in this book was not a letdown. The way he can find poems in random pages of a newspaper is remarkable. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
May 07, 2010
I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Some of the poems were a bit of a reach, but there were a few sparkling gems scattered throughtout and some real pearls of wisdom. I'm glad I read this book.
Dec 28, 2011
Jean
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Marvelous and innovative poetry created by subtraction, rather than addition, of words. I intend to keep this book handy for small moments of inspiration.
Jan 17, 2010
Carol
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By choosing words from newspaper articles and blacking out the remainder with a black marker, Austin Kleon has found a new twist on the "cut-up" genre, first popularized by Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs, creating poems that are as interesting visually as they are in their content.
Nov 09, 2010
Matt
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As the author states, it's hardly ground-breaking stuff, and yet, it's fun. It's airy. It's encouraging and empowering.
Woot: There it is.
Woot: There it is.
Sep 10, 2011
Mugren
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An amazing book. Blackout poetry is truly an innovation. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in writing.
