I am so excited to announce that my friends at Wire & Twine are handprinting our first-ever Newspaper Blackout t-shirt. I’m a customer, so I know their impeccable design taste and the high-quality of their products, but I also know that they’re good Ohio folks, based out of Oxford, a small town where I spent four of my favorite years.

“Creativity is subtraction.” It’s not a poem, it’s a rallying cry.

These tees are handprinted on American Apparel triblend atheletic heathered gray t-shirts. Which are super soft. (Meg and I own several.)

Buy yours now! The preorder sale is now over. Check the store to see if more are available.

I can’t think of a nicer way to cap a release day than with a successful release party in your home town bookstore, so thanks a million to BookPeople, to my wife Meg for baking her delicious chocolate chip cookies,  and to the 50+ folks who came out on Tuesday night! Y’all are the best.

See a bunch of photos from the event on Flickr.

I started things off with a short slideshow about how I started making the poems:

And then I went into a little demonstration of how they’re done. Here I am quoting Allen Ginsberg in “A Supermarket In California“:

And here I am explaining how I think of the poems as “Word Find” puzzles we used to do as kids in elementary school:

After that, Bookpeople hooked everybody up with a marker and a newspaper, and we all set about playing:

I was really stunned by how focused everybody was, and by how many people offered to stand up and read their blackout poems for the group. It was truly awesome.  You can read some of the poems over on the Newspaper Blackout Tumblr.

After that, it was time to sign some books:

Again: thank you thank you thank you to everyone who came out! It was such a gas to see y’all with markers and newspapers in hand.

For those of you outside of Austin, we don’t have many national dates planned yet, but I’m hoping that will change, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: Thanks to Eric Gomez for this really nice writeup of the event:

What stayed with me most was the fun I had. He was right: it was less like work and more like play, a kind of word search for buried humor, hidden wisdom, or laconic lament. Finding that right note of self expression might take more than a little practice however. Kleon has blacked out hundreds and hundreds of these poems. His experience is telling. I struggled with my article and then he mentioned with the timeliness of an oracle that it’s tough to write one from a political column. He finds that the articles from the “Arts or Sports sections are best.”

Austin Kleon has gained a fan not merely because of his down-to-earth and quietly erudite personality, but because the poems he has “found” buried within newsprint are poetical gems in their own right.

Finally! After almost 2 years, Newspaper Blackout is out in the wild. You can buy it now wherever books are sold.

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone for all your links and tweets and support. This book would not exist without you.

You can see a ton of images of the book free for blogging/spreading around in my Press and Blogger’s Kit on Flickr.

Here’s a sampling of the wonderful press we’ve been getting:

“The poems resurrect the newspaper when everyone else is declaring it dead.”
—The New Yorker

“Highbrow/brilliant…”
—New York Magazine

“Kleon manages to turn the paper of record into visually stark nuggets of poetry and wit.”
—Texas Monthly

“[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 Austin Chronicle

If you haven’t purchased your copy yet, please consider doing so!

We’re having a release party here in Austin tonight at BookPeople. 7PM. There will be newspapers, Sharpies, and chocolate chip cookies.

And finally, here’s the trailer for the book with music from the amazing White Denim. Feel free to spread it around!

This is from the book, and one of the poems The New Yorker ran on their blog.

Well, we’re almost there. After almost two years, Newspaper Blackout is out tomorrow. I woke up early this morning, feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve.

A few folks have told me that Amazon has shipped their books, although there’s still one day left to pre-order and enter the screenprint giveaway.

I’m excited. Book release party at Bookpeople here in Austin tomorrow night at 7PM!

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This is day 14 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

The second poem in the book…

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This is day 13 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

My idea of a good Saturday night! ;-)

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This is day 12 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

Another one from the book!

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This is day 11 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

Another poem from the book! Folks told me they enjoyed the autobiography in the post on yesterday’s poem, so here’s some more for you:

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s mowing the lawn.

Nuff sed.

Big thanks to Kim Jones and The Austin Chronicle: I was greeted in my cubicle this morning with this nice interview.

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This is day 10 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

This is one of the first poems I made for the book, way back in July of 2008. I know this because thankfully, I kept a detailed logbook on my book progress:

I don’t usually talk about what I think the poems mean, or divulge any autobiographical details around them, because I like for people to make their own meanings.

All I will say is what they say you can’t say in creative writing workshops: this poem “really happened to me” and therefore it is special and something no one can touch.

I’m feeling all choked up and gooey inside, because my brother and his wife just had their second baby, Arianna Kleon, and I’m feeling like a happy uncle.

Hello, Arianna. Welcome. I don’t know much about anything, so here are some words from one of my favorite writers, Mr. Kurt Vonnegut, whose books I will send you when you’re old enough:

This is day 9 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily or subscribe via RSS for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.

One of my favorites of the 150+ poems in the book.

This is day 8 out of 14 that I’m posting a poem a day until the book comes out on April 13th. Check back daily for new poems.

You can help the release by entering the contest to win a free limited-edition screen print or pre-ordering your copy today.