Erasure
Poetry
Project

Below is a reading list, compiled by Erasure Poetry Project on erasure poetry – from poetry collections that carry the label “erasure poetry” to scholarship (in the form of essays, articles, and book chapters) that study its form and theorize its practice. 

The list is frequently updated. Do reach out to us at [email protected] to inform us about works on erasure poetry in the US context and beyond (by yourself or others) that should appear on the list.

• A Brief History of Erasure Poetics by Travis Macdonald (2009)

• Against Expression: An Anthology of Conceptual Writing edited by Craig Dworkin and Kenneth Goldsmith (2011)

• Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Ruefle (2012)

• “The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure” by Solmaz Sharif (2013)

• “‘Nothing Is Left Out’: Kenneth Goldsmith’s Sports and Erasure Poetry” by Brian C. Cooney (2014)

• “The Archive and Affective Memory in M. Nourbese Philip’s Zong!” by Jenny Sharpe (2014)

• “Engaging Honors Students through Newspaper Blackout Poetry” by Melissa Ladenheim (2014)

• Erasure Poetry: Zwischen Poesie und Kunst, Appropriation und Conceptual Writing by Viola Hildebrandt-Schat and Annette Gilbert (2014)

• “Teaching Literacy as and through Erasure” by Maya Pindyck (2017)

• The Boundaries of the Literary Archive: Reclamation and Representation edited by Carrie Smith and Lisa Stead (2017)

• “From Erasure Poetry to E-Mash-Ups, ‘Reel on/ Another! Power!’: Repetition, Replication, and Resonance” by Gwen Le Cor, Gwen (2018)

• “Influence Poetry and Found Poetry: The Reflection of Creative Writing Pedagogy in the Verse Novel for Young Readers” by Krystal Howard (2018)

• “Reading Redaction: Symptomatic Metadata, Erasure Poetry, and Mark Blacklock’s I’m Jack” by Martin Paul Eve (2019)

• “Unsettling a Canonical Text through Erasure Poetry” by Ashleigh A. Allen and Simon Rob (2021)

• “‘Institutionalized States of Information Abstinence’: Cut-Up Inquiry of Sex Educators’ Erasure Poems” by Kathleen (Kaye) A. Hare (2021)

• “Engaging with Historically Marginalized Voices through Blackout Poetry” by Miguel Gómez (2022)

• All You Need Is a Marker Pen!: Textzerstörung als post-avantgardistisches Verfahren in der Gegenwartslyrik by Eva Eßlinger (2023)

• “Erasure as Repair: A Speculative Poetics of the Archive” by Grace H. Zhou (2023)

• “Intergeneric Fields of Erasure: Reading Philip Metres’s Sand Opera as Document-Poetry” by Mahshid Mayar (2023)

• “Erasure and Seriality: The ‘Serial Attitude’ in A Humument and Tree of Codes” by Mahshid Mayar (2023)

• “Redact to React: Deconstructing Justice with Erasure Poetry” by Sarah-Jane Coyle (2023)

• “Speaking Our Imaginings into Existence: Poetry as a Contestation of Black Erasure in Academia” by Wilson Kwamogi Okello and Christina S. Morton (2024)

• “The Materiality of Absence in Paul Auster’s Poetry and Fiction” by Oliver Haslam (2024)

• Erasure Poetry: Eine literaturtheoretische Analyse eines gegenwartslyrischen Phänomens by Alexa Bornfleth (2024)

• “Blackout Poetry: Eclipsing With Words and Images to Illuminate Ideas” by Amy Lannin et al. (2024)

• “Un/Published: Presence and Absence in Contemporary Erasure Poetry” by Heike Schaefer (2024)

• “Reclaiming Narratives: Using Blackout Poetry as a Tool in YPAR for Emotional Processing and Disrupting Adultism” by Erin Vines et al. (2025) 

• “Splintered Archives: Versions and Versioning through Erasure Arts and Poetry” by Mahshid Mayar (2025)

• A Humument by Tom Phillips (1970-2016)

• Radi Os by Ronald Johnson (1977)

• Col*umns by Doris Cross (1982)

• Nets by Jen Bervin (2004)

• A Little White Shadow by Mary Ruefle (2006)

• Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip (2008)

• The O Mission Repo by Travis Macdonald (2008)

• The ms of my kin by Janet Holmes (2009)

• Sky Booths in the Breath Somewhere: The Ashbery Erasure Poems by David Dodd Lee (2010)

• Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon (2010)

• Voyager by Srikanth Reddy (2011)

• Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey and illustrated by Amy Jean Porter (2011)

• NOIR: Erasure Poetry Anthology by Jenni B. Baker et al. (2013)

• Sand Opera by Philip Metres (2015)

• Look by Solmaz Sharif (2016)

• R E D by Chase Beggrun (2018)

• all this can be yours by Isobel O’Hare (2019)

• Other Words for Smoke by Sarah Maria Griffin (2019)

• Moonbit by James E. Dobson and Rena J. Mosteirin (2019)

• Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres (2020)

• White Blood by Kiki Petrosino (2020)

• Erase the Patriarchy: An Anthology of Erasure Poetry by Isobel O'Hare (2020)

• Yellow Rain by Mai Der Vang (2021)

• Her Read, Graphic Poem by Jennifer Sperry Steinorth (2021)

• I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer (2021)

• A Single Drop Was Full: erasure poetry by Shirley Glubka (2022)

• Doctoring Dobbs by Risa Cromer (2022)

• Dark Testaments: Poems by Crystal Simone Smith (2023)

• Transitory by Subhaga Crystal Bacon (2023)

• The Ferguson Report: An Erasure by Nicole Sealey (2023)

• Dead Girl Erased: An Anthology of Erasure Poetry by Gnashing Teeth Publishing (2024)

• Erasing Frankenstein: Remaking the Monster, A Public Humanities Prison Arts Project by Elizabeth Effinger (ed.) (2024)

• Protocols: An Erasure by Daniela Naomi Molnar (2025)

• Oversight: Erasure Poetry by Carina Bissett and Lee Murray (2026)

• Common Sense (1776), Addressed to Today's Citizen's of America: An Erasure by Crystal Simone Smith (2026)

• … AGAIN by Mark Nowak (2026)

Anthologies

• I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women edited by Caroline Bergvall, Laynie Browne, Teresa Carmody, and Vanessa Place (2012)

• The &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing edited by Davis Schneiderman (2013)

• Redacted: Writing in the Negative Space of the State edited by Lisa Min, Franck Billé, and Charlene Makley (2024)

Journals

• The Kenyon Review

• Blackout Poetry Journal

• Erasure by Percival Everett (2001)

• Falling Awake by Alice Oswald (2016)

• Notes on Conceptualisms by Vanessa Place and Robert Fitterman (2009)

In the Media

• “Erasure in Art: Destruction, Deconstruction, and Palimpsest” by Richard Galpin (1998)

• “The Weight of What’s Left [Out]: Six Contemporary Erasurists on Their Craft” by Andrew David King (2012)

• “The Trump-Era Boom in Erasure Poetry: How a Poetic Form Gained New Political Purpose Online in 2017” by Rachel Stone (2017)

• "Missing: erasure / Must include: erasure by Raphael Rubinstein

• “Erasure Poets Are Turning the Heavily Redacted Mueller Report into Art” by Ariane Quinlan (2019)

• “Erasure Poetry As Outsourcing the Lexicon with Reference to Srikanth Reddy’s Voyager and M NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” by Chris Holdaway (2021)

• “Blanked Verse: The Power of Erasure Poetry” by Carol Rumens (2021)

• “‘A slow and difficult process that verged on the ridiculous’: On Erasure” by Chase Berggrun (2025)

Practical Resources

• Making the Cut: An Erasure Poetry Workbook by Dara Barrois/Dixon (formerly Dara Wier)

• Make Blackout Poetry: Turn These Pages into Poems by John Carroll (2018)

• “Blackout Poetry Is A Fascinating Art Form You Can Try At Home Right Now” by E. Ce Miller (2017)

• Make Blackout Poetry, Activist Edition: Create a Citizen's Manifesto with Political Documents by Abrams Noterie and Jerrod Schwarz (2019)

• The Academy of American Poets on erasure poetry

• The Poetry Foundation on erasure poetry

• The New York Times on creating erasure poetry

• Old Scratch Press on creating something new out of something old or discarded

• Steal Like An Artist: Austin Kleon at TEDcKC