Beginnings of the Prose Poem: All Over the Place

This international anthology takes us to the seldom discussed and anthologized beginnings of the prose poem. It gathers the foundational writings of William Blake, Charles Baudelaire and Max Jacob alongside lesser-known practitioners such as Judith Gautier, Elena Guro, Renée Vivien, Mizuno Yōshū, Dino Campana, Liu Bannong and Marcel Lecomte. The writers presented here celebrate the diversity of a genre that, perhaps more than any other poetic form, has cultivated hybridity and in-betweenness at many levels, be they aesthetic, cultural or political. This volume should be indispensable to anyone interested in modern and contemporary poetics as well as, more generally, the permutations of literary tradition and innovation. Edited and with an introduction by Mary Ann Caws and Michel Delville. With over 20 translators from around the world.