Book Spine Poetry Creative Writing Exercise

Creative Writing Exercise - Book Spine Poetry Workshop and Contest

Book Spine Poetry is derived from the combination of book titles into prose or poetry. Play with the sound of words (or in this case the words in titles and how the titles fit together, or sound together). It might be a theme, or a narrative story, read like a conversation, or some other puzzle of your own creation. You can work solo or in teams.

1. Take about 20 – 30 minutes to walk around the library with paper and a pencil and “collect” book titles you think are interesting. Write down the entire title and the author’s name. You may also want to write the call number or notate the collection (short story, science fiction, mystery, easy reader) so you can find the book again when you are ready to assemble your final submission. Please do not pull the books until you are ready to take a photograph.

1. Back in the workshop; arrange the titles you have collected into poems writing each title on its own line. Although you have to use the entire title, you don’t have to use all the titles you have collected and you can share titles with others.

1. Create a “title” for the final “poem” that gives some insight into your theme or idea.

1. Collect the books for the titles you have used and stack the books in order. Document your poem with a photograph of the spines. Continue to do this after this workshop and tell your friends and family.

All poems submitted from the workshop and afterwards will be entered into a prize drawing. The drawing will be held at the Adult Summer Reading Party on August 18, 2012 at 2:00 p.m.

Send a separate photograph of each of your creations with your name, address, phone number, email and age if you are under 18 to by August 13, 2012. All ages are welcome to send in photos of their poems. All submittals will be displayed in a blog online on the South Brunswick Public Library website at

For examples from other “poets”enter “Book Spine Poetry” into an image search in Google and be inspired by the thousands of creations posted on the Internet.

This program was compiled by Greg Andree, OldRochesterRegionalJunior High School and more information can be found on the Andree Institute website at: