The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry: Contemporary Poets in Discussion and Practice - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0978984889 ISBN 13: 9780978984885

Publisher: Rose Metal Press, 2010

Synopsis

Poetry. Literary Criticism. A wide-ranging gathering of 34 brief essays and 66 prose poems by distinguished practitioners, THE ROSE METAL PRESS FIELD GUIDE TO PROSE POETRY is as personal and provocative, accessible and idiosyncratic as the genre itself. The essayists discuss their craft, influences, and experiences, all while pondering larger questions: What is prose poetry? Why write prose poems? With its pioneering introduction, this collection provides a history of the development of the prose poem up to its current widespread appeal. Half critical study and half anthology, THE FIELD GUIDE TO PROSE POETRY is a not-to-be-missed companion for readers and writers of poetry, as well as students and teachers of creative writing.

About this title

About the Authors

Gary L. McDowell was born and raised in suburban Chicago. He earned a BA in English from Northern Illinois University and an MFA in Poetry from Bowling Green State University. He currently teaches writing at Western Michigan University where he is studying for his PhD in Contemporary Poetics and American Literature. His first collection of poems, American Amen, won the 2009 Orphic Prize and will appear in late 2010 from Dream Horse Press. He is also the author of two chapbooks, They Speak of Fruit (Cooper Dillon, 2009) and The Blueprint (Pudding House, 2005). His poems have been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize, and have appeared in various literary journals, including Colorado Review, Indiana Review, The Laurel Review, New England Review, Ninth Letter, Poetry Daily, and Quarterly West. He lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan with his wife and their young son, Auden.

F. Daniel Rzicznek earned a BA in English from Kent State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University. His chapbook of prose poems, Cloud Tablets, was published by Kent State University Press in 2006 as part of the Wick Poetry Chapbook Series. In 2007, he won the May Swenson Poetry Award for his debut full-length collection, Neck of the World. In 2009 his second collection of poems, Divination Machine, appeared on the Free Verse Editions imprint of Parlor Press. His individual poems have been published in The New Republic, Boston Review, Orion, Shenandoah, AGNI, The Iowa Review, and Mississippi Review, among others, and have been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. Currently he teaches English composition and creative writing at Bowling Green State University. He lives with his wife, the writer Amanda McGuire, in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Reviews

"I'm not sure it matters all that much whether some poems are lined or not," notes the poet James Harris in this anthology and exploration of prose poetry. Although Harris may be right, most of the 30 or so poets writing here spend a considerable amount of space trying to define or defend the prose poem. Contributor Beckian Fritz Goldberg quotes a student who calls prose poetry "the ugliest girl at the party who is having the best time." Indeed, many of these unusually accessible poems have elements of humor and pop culture that subvert the popular notion of poetry as rhymed stanzas on the topics of nature or death. But for the casual reader, few of the essays pop, and some of the poems read as too-obvious explorations of the genre, but the largest fault is of omission. By choosing to focus on contemporary poets alone, the editors have eschewed anyone whose work helped to create this genre. When over half of the poets reference the influence of Russell Edson, it's disappointing that Edson himself is absent.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Rose Metal Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0978984889
• ISBN 13: 9780978984885
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: McDowell Gary L., Rzicznek F. Daniel