An advertisement for Lexus in the Friday, November 14, 2008 Wall Street Journal, W12. Ad agency unknown. Thanks to Linda Ball for the heads up, Derik Badman for the image.

So dude, where’s my car?

Yes, we did.

The contest is now closed. See the winners!

Read the official contest rules.

For this contest, one winner and three runners-up will receive a free copy of the book, along with the chance to be published in the book!

To enter the contest, you must be 18 and a US resident (sorry to all you young’uns and overseas folk!) One entry per monthly contest.

The two columns of newspaper below are from November 1, 1908, 100 years ago. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to turn them into a poem.

[download high-quality GIF image] | [download PDF]

Directions

You can go about the creation of your poem in one of two ways:

WITH MARKER FUMES

1. Download the PDF and print it out (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)
2. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
3. Scan or take a digital picture of the poem. Be sure it’s readable.
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the file along with the required information using the submission form

WITHOUT MARKER FUMES

1. Download the high-resolution GIF and save it to your desktop (right-click save as on the link)
2. Open the GIF with an image-editing program like Paint or Photoshop
3. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the image file along with the required information using the submission form

TIPS

• Combine both columns into one poem—don’t just do each column at a time! It doesn’t make for a good read. Skip between the two…this allows for more interesting possibilities. You can see the previous winners here and here and here.
• Remember that Westerners read left-to-right, up-to-down. Poems read best if they follow that pattern.
• You can get around the left/right/up/down problem by connecting words with whitespace. (See an example.)
• What you are doing when making a blackout poem, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, is “shopping for images.” Nouns and verbs make the best images.
• Regardless of where it’s located in the text, I always start a poem by looking for a word or image that resonates with me and move from there.
• It’s a lot like a word search.
• You don’t have to use the whole text. What to leave in / leave out / how long is the magic.
• Poetry doesn’t have to be serious!
• Try not to think to hard about it and let it flow! It might take you a bunch of tries. Don’t be intimidated! Anyone can do it!

One winner and three runners-up will be announced at the end of the month.

See the previous winners from August, September, and October.

Help us spread the word! Link to:
http://www.austinkleon.com/newspaper-blackout-poems

Good luck!

Submission form

Read the official contest rules.

Remember: only US residents 18 and older. One contest entry per month, please. Be sure to fill out all required fields and keep your image file limited to 2MB or smaller.

All entries must be submitted by November 21, 2008 (5:00 P.M. EST)

The contest is now closed. See the winners!

Problems with your submission? E-mail: blackoutpoems [at] gmail [dot] com

Lots of dentistry-themed poems this month, but the winner was Marty Smith of Washington, DC, for his poem, “Teeth.”

I dig the graphic inventiveness of Marty’s poem—”subtraction” method, indeed!

Our runner-ups were all from the grand state of Illinois: Pete Anderson from Joliet, and Kristen Delap and James Francis Flynn from Chicago.

Congratulations, Marty, Pete, Kristen, and James! Y’all will get your free books next September.

Okay, folks: you have one more shot at a free book. Check back November 1st for the next contest!

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. SEE THE WINNERS.

Enter the contest and you could win a free book and be published!

Read the official contest rules.

Get out your markers: this is the third of four monthly contests we’ll be running for the rest of the year. For each monthly contest, one winner and three runners-up will receive a free copy of the book, along with the chance to be published in the book!

To enter the contest, you must be 18 and a US resident (sorry to all you young’uns and overseas folk!) One entry per monthly contest.

The two columns of newspaper below are from October 1, 1908, 100 years ago. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to turn them into a poem.

[download high-quality GIF image] | [download PDF]

Directions

You can go about the creation of your poem in one of two ways:

WITH MARKER FUMES

1. Download the PDF and print it out (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)
2. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
3. Scan or take a digital picture of the poem. Be sure it’s readable.
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the file along with the required information using the submission form

WITHOUT MARKER FUMES

1. Download the high-resolution GIF and save it to your desktop (right-click save as on the link)
2. Open the GIF with an image-editing program like Paint or Photoshop
3. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the image file along with the required information using the submission form

TIPS

• Combine both columns into one poem—don’t just do each column at a time! It doesn’t make for a good read. Skip between the two…this allows for more interesting possibilities. You can see the previous winners here and here.
• Remember that Westerners read left-to-right, up-to-down. Poems read best if they follow that pattern.
• You can get around the left/right/up/down problem by connecting words with whitespace. (See an example.)
• What you are doing when making a blackout poem, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, is “shopping for images.” Nouns and verbs make the best images.
• Regardless of where it’s located in the text, I always start a poem by looking for a word or image that resonates with me and move from there.
• It’s a lot like a word search.
• You don’t have to use the whole text. What to leave in / leave out / how long is the magic.
• Poetry doesn’t have to be serious!
• Try not to think to hard about it and let it flow! It might take you a bunch of tries. Don’t be intimidated! Anyone can do it!

One winner and three runners-up will be announced at the end of the month, along with our last contest in November.

You can see the previous winners here and here.

Help us spread the word! Link to:
http://www.austinkleon.com/newspaper-blackout-poems

Good luck!

Submission form

Read the official contest rules.

Remember: only US residents 18 and older. One contest entry per month, please. Be sure to fill out all required fields and keep your image file limited to 2MB or smaller.

All entries must be submitted by October 23, 2008 (5:00 P.M. EST)

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. SEE THE WINNERS.

Problems with your submission? E-mail: blackoutpoems [at] gmail [dot] com

This month, I decided to announce two co-winners and two runner-ups. The first co-winner is Peter Boet, a civil engineer from Grand Haven, Michigan, for his poem, “Clue.”

Here’s Peter on the making of his poem:

After scanning the article a couple times, the words that stuck out for me were “revolver” and “dining room” because they reminded me of the board game Clue. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to find Professor Plum or Colonel Mustard, although I think I did check. I was searching for Mr. Green when I stumbled upon Mrs. White hanging out near the lower left hand corner. Thankfully, most of the article had to do with games and winning so I was able to tie them together.

The second co-winner is Stephanie Cheng, a third-year med student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, for her poem, “The Walrus Makes a Toast.”

Here’s Stephanie on the making of her poem:

I find myself checking the site between patients during slow clinic days. One of my favorites was “Adventures in the Batsuit” (both the original and the retooled). The allusion to Batman makes the poem so rich, providing a whole backstory on which to comment. So when I saw the words “oyster” and “steam(er)” in the newspaper text, I immediately thought of Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter” and the rest of the poem fell into place from there. Because I don’t get to write a lot of non-medical stuff these days and am subsequently full of literary rust, it felt delightfully perverse to use someone else’s words and twist them to tell my own story.”

I find it fascinating that the two best poems in this month’s contest were both references to pop culture, and both poets had a similar approach to making their poems: they found a few words that recalled a strong association, and then they filled a poem in around them. That’s often the method that yields my best poems, too.

The runner-ups were Brandon Gillin of South Royalton, Vermont, and Charles Toeppe of Monroe, Michigan. (Three winners from Michigan this month! Crazy!)

Congratulations, Peter, Stephanie, Brandon, and Charles! Y’all will get your free books next September.

And a big round of applause to everyone else who entered the contest. It’s a ton of fun reading all your submissions.

If you haven’t entered yet, have no fear: there are two more contests coming up: one starting this Wednesday, October 1st, and one in November.

The winner of the August contest was Alison Conlon of Canton, MA, for her poem, “Roach Stain”:

Alison’s poem did everything I think a great blackout poem should do: it totally transforms the original article into a vivid image, it reads cleanly from left to right, top to bottom, and best of all, it has a sense of humor. She was innovative with the text: dig the way she combined “struggle-ing” and “m-y.” (”Cheats” I use all the time!) Also dig the way she drew geometric shapes around the words—everything’s either a floating triangle, a circle, or a rectangle. Something worth stealing!

I asked Alison to write a little something about herself, and here’s what she sent me:

I live in the Boston area with my husband, 1 yr old son and 2 dogs. I have a long train ride to and from work everyday, and I have found that the Newspaper Blackout Poems are a great way to pass the time (though also an easy way to miss my stop!). When I first read through the August article, the task of writing a poem seemed more than a little daunting. It is one thing to use your own words, but when you have to work within the confines of pre-existing words and order it is something else entirely! After many reads I selected a few images that I thought I could work with. Once I saw that “crushed,” “roach,” and and “kitchen” were all there, my direction was set. I then just looked for the right words to pull it all together. I love that Blackout Poems are more than just a written piece of art. Because of the location of the words and how you choose to select or link them, they can also be a piece of visual art as well.

Too cool!

The also-excellent runner-ups were Josh Whitcomb of St. Paul, MN, Mark Larson of Atlanta, GA, and Tim Bakke of Minneapolis, MN. You’ll be able to see their poems, along with Alison’s, in the book!

Congrats to Alison, Josh, Mark, and Tim: y’all will get your free books next September!

And BIG THANKS to everybody who entered the contest. It was a rough article, so if you didn’t win, try this month’s! You have less than two weeks left to get your entries in: they’re due September 21, 2008 (5:00 P.M. EST).

ENTER THE SEPTEMBER NEWSPAPER BLACKOUT POEMS CONTEST

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. SEE THE WINNERS.

Read the official contest rules.

Get out your markers: this is the second of four monthly contests we’ll be running for the rest of the year. For each monthly contest, one winner and three runners-up will receive a free copy of the book, along with the chance to be published in the book!

To enter the contest, you must be 18 and a US resident (sorry to all you young’uns and overseas folk!) One entry per monthly contest.

The two columns of newspaper below are from September 1, 1908, 100 years ago. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to turn them into a poem.

[download high-quality GIF image] | [download PDF]

Directions

You can go about the creation of your poem in one of two ways:

WITH MARKER FUMES

1. Download the PDF and print it out (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)
2. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
3. Scan or take a digital picture of the poem. Be sure it’s readable.
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the file along with the required information using the submission form

WITHOUT MARKER FUMES

1. Download the high-quality GIF and save it to your desktop (right-click save as on the link)
2. Open the GIF with an image-editing program like Paint or Photoshop
3. Black out the words in the newspaper text into a poem
4. Save an image of the poem as a .jpg, .gif, or .png file less than 2MB in file size
5. Send in the image file along with the required information using the submission form

TIPS

• Try your best to combine both columns into one poem, skipping between the two…this allows for more interesting possibilities.
• Remember that Westerners read left-to-right, up-to-down. Poems read best if they follow that pattern.
• You can get around the left/right/up/down problem by connecting words with whitespace. (See an example.)
• What you are doing when making a blackout poem, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, is “shopping for images.” Nouns and verbs make the best images.
• Regardless of where it’s located in the text, I always start a poem by looking for a word or image that resonates with me and move from there.
• It’s a lot like a word search.
• You don’t have to use the whole text. What to leave in / leave out / how long is the magic.
• Poetry doesn’t have to be serious!
• Try not to think to hard about it and let it flow! It might take you a bunch of tries. Don’t be intimidated! Anyone can do it!

One winner and three runners-up will be announced at the end of the month, along with a new contest in October.

Help us spread the word! Link to:
http://www.austinkleon.com/newspaper-blackout-poems

THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. SEE THE WINNERS.

Problems with your submission? E-mail: blackoutpoems [at] gmail [dot] com

Politics is ephemeral, which is why I would never put this in the book, and why I’m posting it here.

I’ve lived my entire adult life under the Bush administration. I was 17 years old when he took office. I couldn’t even vote.

I have no idea what it’s like to be a proud American. I have no idea what it’s like to have a leader with a decent national vision, who wants to lead America forward instead of back into the Dark Ages.

And here comes this guy.

People say he’s just an image. A myth.

Well, images and myth have the power to change things.

It’s hard not to be inspired.

One of my favorite cartoonists, Steve Brodner, says it better than me:

As members of the fraternity of satiric artists and people who contribute to mainstream and independent media we must focus intensely on Obama; what he says, how his positions may veer off the right course. He needs criticism from us more than a Republican, because he can do more damage in his way. And he can be moved (he reads!)

But for tonight I think pausing and feeling this moment is a good thing. It is hard to be cynical and pissed off tonight, for me. Because there is nothing in our lives to compare this with. It, to me, is the good part of America, after all the sludge it has been covered with, and all its own flaws that have contributed for so long to its isolation, finally reasserting itself. Struggling back into the daylight. And here is the messenger, flawed, gawky, seemingly out of nowhere. But he’s right enough to pin hopes on. And if you are a praying person, to do that too. Things have gotten pretty bad very fast. Here is a thing that reminds us that we are made of better stuff. Sure we’ll take this guy apart as we go. That’s the drill. But here’s hoping he has the talent to transcend, not only tonight, but the horrible trends we and human kind have set in motion. Go Barack.

Since I haven’t posted a new blackout poem in a couple months or so since starting on the book, here’s a little treat: my first attempt at blacking out a whole broadsheet. This is the front page of the business section. I’d like to do a series of these, as a break from the regular book work.

FYI: if you’re in the Austin area, I’m planning on showing this and some of the new, never-before-seen poems at the next Austin VizThink gathering on September 9th.