Austin Kleon

On June 16, 1983, Kleon was born in Circleville, Ohio, United States. Kleon's father was an associate professor at Ohio State University. Kleon's mother was a school counsellor and later a school principal. Kleon has two half-brothers and a step sister. Kleon graduated as a valedictorian in high school.

Austin Kleon is a New York Times bestselling author of five books: Steal Like an Artist; Show Your Work! Keep Going; Steal Like an Artist Journal; and Newspaper Blackout. Kleon's works focus on creativity in today's world.

Kleon started his career in a public library in Cleveland, Ohio. While working in a library, Kleon became a blogger and posted his poems. Kleon also taught library users how to use computers. Kleon taught himself HTML and CSS. In Austin, Texas, Kleon became a web designer for the law school at University of Texas. Kleon published his poems as Newspaper Blackout. After Kleon's first book was published, he became a copywriter for Spring box, a digital ad agency.

Kleon publishes a weekly newsletter to 70,000+ subscribers. Kleon's work has been translated into over a dozen languages and featured on major media.

He’s also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. New York Magazine called his work “brilliant,” The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” and The New Yorker said his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everybody else is declaring it dead.” He speaks for organizations such as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons.