This presentation was used as part of "A Poetry of Absence: Creating Erasure Poems," a workshop taught by Julie Judkins at 826michigan to 12 -16 year olds. Course description: "Interested in writing poetry but not sure where to find the words? Take a page from our book! In this workshop we’ll experiment with “erasure poetry,” where words on a printed page (newspaper, discarded book page) are crossed out until the ones remaining form a brand new work: your poem! We’ll look at the history of the art form, discuss techniques, and then uncap our permanent markers and try it for ourselves." Please visit my blog for more information. http://wp.me/p1iMOI-lg

1. Welcome to “A Poetry of
Absence”!
Created and taught by Julie Judkins at
826michigan, March 17, 2012

2. What is an
erasure?
A poem created out from another
person’s text (often published
material, like a newspaper article
or book page)
Image Credit: Austin Kleon

3. Materials
Text (newspaper, digital text file, book page)
“An eraser”: Marker, text editor, scissors, white-out…or anything
you can imagine!
Credit: Safran Foer, Ruefle

4. Is it art? Is it
text? Both?
Credit: Tom Phillips

5. Tree of Codes
Jonathan Safran Foer (2010)
Die-cut adaption of The Street
ofCrocodiles by Bruno Schulz

6. Darkness
Yedda Morrison (2009)
Erased any mention of humans from Joseph Conrad’s
Heart of Darkness.

7. The Ms of My
Kin
Janet Holmes
(2009)
Political commentary about the
Iraq war cut out of The Poems of
Emily Dickinson (poems from
1861 and 1862)

8. Newspaper
Blackout
Austin Kleon
(2010)
Sharpie & newspaper
www.newspaperblackout.com

9. WaveBooks Erasure App:
http://wavepoetry.com/erasures/poems.
php

10. Credit: Kleon, Eastern Michigan University
English, Anna Maria Johnson

11. What’s next?
 Use a line from your poem as the first line of a story?
 Link several poems into a short story?
 Create your next poem by making an image or pattern
with the words?
 Or…?
Credit: Off The Front Porch blog