For over 25 years, August Highland wrote in a variety of traditional forms. He gradually became interested in pursuing a new direction and, in the early 90's, began exploring the appropriation of text and rearranging text into non-linear sequences. Highland went on to originate a genre of literature he calls "Hyper-Literary Fiction," which became successively more and more visually oriented.

When he initially made the transition from the page to the canvas, his work was intended for viewing on a computer screen or laptop. Then, over the course of two years, Highland developed techniques enabling him to produce his work on a monumental scale. Highland creates his work by programming instructions for all the compositional elements, including typefaces, font color and size, text sources, distribution of text, and overall dimension. The name he has given to this genre is "Literary Extremism."

Every compositional element of his work is text. From a distance, the text in Highland's work forms a visual pattern. Viewed more closely, words and phrases can be read. This makes his work a creation of art and a production of literature which combines and transcends both.

Highland's first visual works were made up of text from varied and various sources. In 2007, he created a collection of work from a single source titled "The Paradise Effect" in celebration of the 400th birthday of John Milton by incorporating text from the epic poem, Paradise Lost. Since then, Highland has celebrated the birthdays and commemorated the deaths of classic writers by creating collections of work from the text of their novels.

In reworking the text of classic novels, Highland is able to appreciate these classic works of literature in a new form, and he hopes that others will appreciate them too.