A new 20×200 print, “So Many Places,” is available through WestElm.com.

the world is so many places! — yet home is the word we’re encouraged to find

See the rest of my prints→

Here’s an excerpt of a mini-interview I did with the West Elm folks:

How do you live with art?

My wife and I work together in a home studio, so we like to surround ourselves with art by filling our walls with pieces from artists we love. Sometimes I’ll even frame and hang pictures of (mostly dead) artist heroes of mine — they’re like friendly ghosts, I can feel them pushing me on while I work. (It’s way less morbid than it sounds.)

What is a favorite gallery or museum that you particularly love or that inspires your work?

Here in Austin, Texas, I really like to stop by Yard Dog Art Gallery on South Congress and see the stuff they have up. Because I’m both a writer and an artist, my absolute favorite spot in town is the Harry Ransom Center on the University of Texas campus — their archive is massive and their exhibits are terrific. I’ve seen everything there from original Frida Kahlo paintings to James Joyce manuscripts.

Read more→

Just in time for the holidays, here are two brand-new Newspaper Blackout prints.

“Open Road” available at 20×200.com→

“How To Be Cool” available at 20×200.com→

This poem is a “deleted scene”—it was cut from my book, Newspaper Blackout, late in the editing process, although now I can’t remember why. It was made from an article about the Brooklyn rapper Lil Mama.

Also: Steal Like An Artist is available for pre-order!

See more of my work for sale →

Marriage is two people in love / standing in the same bathroom

I mean, yes, we’re sinking … but the music is exceptional

One of my all-time favorite blackout poems is now an affordable print at 20×200!

Very pleased to announce that my friend Jen Bekman and the rad gang at 20×200 are offering a new, affordable Newspaper Blackout print for sale!

The Travelogue

Fun fact: this is the poem that Renee Montaigne read on NPR’s Morning Edition in 2008.

Never bought from 20×200 before?  You’re gonna love it. Here’s an idea of what you’ll get when your print arrives. (You can also see the other 3 prints we have available through 20×200 in my store.)

Jen wrote a really lovely newsletter about the piece, some of which I wanted to share here:

I met Austin in person in Austin, TX, when I was there for SXSW, and was glad to get to spend time with him as he was on the brink of big things—spending time with artists on the brink of big things is one of the true joys of my job. His book—which you can pre-order on Amazon—was available in the conference’s bookstore. We went to dinner on the same evening that we both got to hold copies of it in our hands for the very first time. Austin was frazzled and flustered and flattered by the attention that was beginning to percolate. He was anxious about what was to come, and whether the book would sell, and what comes next when it does or it doesn’t.

There were four of us at dinner, each representing a compass point on the map of North America—California, Canada, New York and Texas—sitting at a picnic table on a scrappy patio beneath trees strung with Christmas lights, sipping sweet tea and eating barbecue and talking about poetry. I mean really talking about poetry, because as it turned out, all four of us are pretty big poetry nerds. It struck me then that for all the talk about what was to come, Austin’s accomplished some pretty amazing things already and those things deserved a good portion of the credit for convening us there that evening. And being there? That was pretty great.

With all the insanity going on in my life right now, the  giveaways, interviews, reviews, Amazon rank, etc., I really needed to read this.

To remember what’s important.

As I told the group that evening: the best part (for me) of being an artist and a writer is the people I’ve been able to meet–totally awesome people–whether it’s in blog comments, or on twitter, or in person over BBQ.

I’m a very lucky guy. So big thanks to y’all, and thanks to Jen.