Expressions of interest are sought from scholars for a new special issue of TEXT journal titled: Beyond the Line: Contemporary Prose Poetry
Just a couple of decades ago, prose poetry occupied a very minor corner of the poetry
spectrum, although in fact many major poets have published works in that form. As early
as the mid 1970s, anthologies of prose poems were emerging in the USA, but they were
preceded by work produced in Europe: the Romantic Fragment of the 19th century
German scene (which was quickly adopted by British Romantics), and then the early 20th
century experiments, and particularly the poetic avant garde in France.
Scholarly writings on the prose poem trace its history, and discuss its difficult relationship
to genre: is it a fragment; or a very short story; or an imagistic moment; or just a poem
without linebreaks?
See the full call for papers for details on how to submit