Generating Prose Poems [Deborah Woodard]

Though it has been around since the nineteenth century, the prose poem resists easy definition. Is it a sublime fusion of prose and poetry, or a mongrel offspring? We’ll give ourselves plenty of permission to interpret the genre in whatever ways best suit our needs. We’ll study the work of the late Russell Edson, whose parable- and fairytale-like prose poems are American classics, and we’ll explore a new collection of brief forms, aptly titled SHORT. Participants may respond with prose poems, “regular” poems, or flash fiction.