Prose poetry work a first
PROSE poetry — poetry that is written like prose in paragraphs rather than verse, but containing poetic characteristics — is growing in popularity around the world.
However, despite its long history — some say the Bible contains examples of prose poetry — there is no definitive scholarly text on the form.
Now, Deakin poet and senior lecturer in writing and literature with the School of Communication and Creative Arts Dr Cassandra Atherton has been commissioned, along with fellow poet and academic the University of Canberra’s Professor of Writing Paul Hetherington, to write a firstof-kind book on prose poetry.
Dr Atherton and Prof Hetherington believe the book will make a unique and important contribution to the field, given that both its authors are renowned scholars of prose poetry as well as award-winning practitioners of the form.
Princeton University Press will publish Dr Atherton and Prof Hetherington’s book at the end of next year. Dr Atherton, who writes poems only in the prose poetry form, said she is excited that the need for a text has been recognised.
“Prose poems have been steadily gaining popularity since 1990 when American writer Charles Simic was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his book of prose poetry, The World Doesn’t End. There have also been an increasing number of journals catering for the form,” she said.
“However, while this has helped to legitimise prose po- etry as a significant form of poetry, scholarship on prose poetry hasn’t grown as quickly. There are many anthologies, but no books that provide detailed, rigorous analysis of the characteristics of the form.
“Our aim is for this book to be the definitive book on prose poetry and to shed light on a popular and growing form that has been otherwise neglected.”
Dr Atherton does admit to some trepidation, however, in writing the first, definitive work on prose poetry that will be used by critics and students.
“The book is supposed to be one that anyone who writes, reads or writes criticism about prose poetry can go to,” she said. “For me, that’s terrifying because we have to make some decisions about things such how prose poetry is defined and how long a prose poem typically is. People might disagree with what we say, but we’re going to be setting the standard with which people agree or disagree. That’s a bit daunting.
“But I’m also excited about the opportunity. I’ve been a prose poet since I was 19 and who knew that all these years later I’d be writing a scholarly work on the subject? I think some of the excitement stems from the fact that there isn’t much written in the area, so I really feel like I’m contributing something.”
The book will address different styles of prose poetry around the world, examine the key characteristics of the form and analyse a selection of key prose poems across time.
“We want to make it international and talk about the different types of prose poems — European, American and Australian, as well as use of the form in contemporary Japan and China,” Dr Atherton said.
She said that while European prose poetry tends to be more urban and focus on “little snapshots of life”, the American style couples the surreal with the quotidian, or everyday details. Australian prose poetry, meanwhile, is more laconic and often comic.
“I think prose poetry has to have that aspect of the quotidian on some level, whether the poet subverts it and it becomes something dreamlike, or whether the poet plays with it and it becomes something quite comic and slapstick,” she said.