‘Erased’ poetry pamphlet

Book Design, Editorial Design

Creating the first in a series of limited-edition, hand-bound poetry pamphlets

In Erased, writer James McDermott takes found homophobic newspaper articles, speeches, legislations and biblical passages and makes erasure poems out of them to reveal queer subtext or to turn them into gay-friendly pieces in the hope of reclaiming those texts which tried to erase gay lives.

Many of the poems use redactions to subvert the chosen texts’ original meaning. We developed this idea further by using Risograph printing in fluorescent pink to highlight the censoring which would more usually be in black.

Each pamphlet was Singer stitch bound in recycled polyester hot pink thread. Printed on recycled paper to reduce the environmental impact, this also referenced the recycling process of the found poetry.

The cover used the redacted pink blocking to emulate the censoring of a document. Using Roslindale and Bureau Grotesque fonts to unite to the Polari Press logotype as well as the other poetry collections, this is the beginning of a series that will have their own cover style and look but that also look part of the same informal and diverse series of Polari Poetry pamphlets of up to 28 pages.