Australian Prose Poetry – New Anthology – Cassandra Atherton

Great news from staff member Cassandra Atherton and co-editor Paul Hetherington, who’ve signed a contract with MUP for a new anthology of Australian prose poetry. In this definitive collection, Cassandra and Paul will curate the trajectory of the prose poem in Australia, from its beginnings to the present day.

Prose poetry is a resurgent literary form in the English-speaking world. So many people are now writing prose poems that the form has moved from the margins to the mainstream in less than 30 years. In Australia, the prose poem has been steadily gaining popularity and a wider readership over the past two decades. Many Australian poets have been adding prose poetry to their poetic repertoires.

Australians are some of the leading practitioners of this important literary form. In the late 1970s and 1980s, poets such as Andrew Taylor, Bruce Beaver, Thomas Shapcott, Laurie Duggan, Ania Walwicz, joanne burns, Rodney Hall, Philip Hammial and Gary Catalano produced book-length collections of prose poetry. However, some of their work is not easily accessible and the best contemporary examples are often scattered amongst many different poetry collections and can be hard to find.

Readers, poets and students will find the best and most significant Australian prose poems brought together for the first time in this anthology.