15 Comments
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Paul Heatley's avatar

This is awesome! And I really appreciate this look at Cara and Marla's upcycling process. Marla Taviano is also a friend of mine and I am currently writing a musical based on her book unbelieve: poems on the journey to becoming a heretic.

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Stephanie Duncan Smith's avatar

Sounds like an incredible project!

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Nikki's avatar

"I agree with self-serving selfish articles." How about you? 😅

Too funny

Great article

Love the method

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Liz Charlotte Grant's avatar

Love the idea of these kinds of collaborations. Can I throw my hat in the ring as a potential contributor? 🫣

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Stephanie Duncan Smith's avatar

Email me!

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Liz Charlotte Grant's avatar

I’m behind on everything, but you’ll be hearing from me in August 😋

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Deepa Paul's avatar

Love this approach and the whole idea of blackout poetry. My favorite use of this is how poet Kate Baer turns Instagram DMs from her haters into blackout poems. Thanks for sharing!

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Stephanie Duncan Smith's avatar

Me too, love her work and the sweet subversion of it!

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Brandy Griggs's avatar

I want to try this with one of my cringe-worthy junior high journals!

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Stephanie Duncan Smith's avatar

Same!

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Meredith Hinds's avatar

Beautiful. I love how this method moves the writer forward. A shame-buster for sure!

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Karen Sargent's avatar

I love this!

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Jen Swan's avatar

I love this idea, its a little bit of redemption of our words and our stages of growth. Like you reflect on here we can recognise where we have been, all the stages we have moved through even if some of them make us cringe now!

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Kayla Berg's avatar

I just dug out twenty plus years of journaling and they are so cringy. I love the idea of going back and up cycling some of those entries. Thank you for this! ❤️

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Abigail's avatar

Oh boy. I need this so much. I just reviewed all the posts on my old, neglected blog (the one I had before getting up the courage to move to substack). I cringed so much over topics and tone that I put a crick in my neck. :) This is the first I've heard of Blackout poetry. I'm definitely going to give it a try! Thank you, Stephanie and Cara!

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