This position statement has come about because, to be honest, prose poetry has become increasingly vexing for us.
We don’t always get it!
It’s poetic prose … so what?! It could be called literate prose or fancy prose or imaginative prose … but too often, what is labelled “prose poetry” by its creators (when submitting it to us) is really prose with (maybe) a few extra flourishes.
The differences between poetry and prose, for us, are not just about structure, but where does one begin and the other end? We look at many of these submitted prose poem pieces, and they look (and read) like prose.
Now this “is it prose? is it poetry?” issue was NOT an issue for us when our anthologies were published with poetry and prose interspersed. But since January 2018, from the publication of Happy2 Pure Slush Vol. 15, all our anthologies have separate poetry and prose sections.
So henceforth, if your submission looks like a poem, it will be included in Poetry, and if it looks like prose, it will be included in Prose.
If, as a prose poetry writer / submitter, this causes an issue for you, we suggest you don’t submit your prose poetry to us.
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