The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry

Prose poetry is a resurgent literary form in the English-speaking world and has been rapidly gaining popularity in Australia. Cassandra Atherton and Paul Hetherington have gathered a broad and representative selection of the best Australian prose poems written over the last fifty years.

The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetryincludes numerous distinguished prose poets—Jordie Albiston, joanne burns, Gary Catalano, Anna Couani, Alex Skovron, Samuel Wagan Watson, Ania Walwicz and many moremdash;and documents prose poetry's growing appeal over recent decades, from the poetic margins to the mainstream.

This collection reframes our understanding not only of this dynamic poetic form, but of Australian poetry as a whole.

Cassandra Atherton is a widely anthologised prose poet and an expert on prose poetry. She was a Visiting Scholar in English at Harvard University and a Visiting Fellow at Sophia University, Tokyo. She is the recipient of national and international research grants and awards and has judged numerous poetry awards including the Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry, the joanne burns award and the Lord Mayor's Prize for Poetry. Cassandra's books of prose poetry include Exhumed (2015), Trace (2015), Pre-Raphaelite (2018) and Leftovers (2020). She is an Associate Professor of Writing and Literature at Deakin University and commissioning editor for Westerly magazine, Axon: Creative Explorations journal and series editor for publisher Spineless Wonders.

Paul Hetherington is a distinguished poet who has published numerous full-length poetry and prose poetry collections and has won or been nominated for more than thirty national and international awards and competitions. He won the 2014 West Australian Premier's Book Awards (poetry), was shortlisted for the 2017 Kenneth Slessor Prize and undertook an Australia Council Residency at the BR Whiting Studio in Rome in 2015-16. Paul is Professor of Writing in the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Canberra, head of the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI), and joint founding editor of the international online journal Axon: Creative Explorations. He founded the International Prose Poetry Group in 2014.

They are co-authors of a scholarly study of the prose poem for Princeton University Press.