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