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.

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

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

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

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

• Radi Os by Ronald Johnson (1977)

• Nets by Jen Bervin (2003)

• 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)

• A Little White Shadow by Mary Ruefle (2006)

• Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip (2008)

• Voyager by Srikanth Reddy (2011)

• A Humument by Tom Phillips (1970-2016)

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

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

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

• Sand Opera by Philip Metres (2015)

• Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres (2020)

• 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)

• 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) 

   

• 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)

• 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