Dates and Times
10 November 2020
12:30 - 13:00
Event for
Location
Address: Online Event
Organiser
Faculty of Arts and Design Research Office
Enquiry
Peta Sinclair
Event about:
FAD Research Festival: CCCR Panel Discussion
Title
Beyond the margins: researching the prose poetry renaissance
Presenters
Dr Ross Gibson, Centenary Professor in Creative & Cultural Research, CCCR, University of Canberra; Professor Paul Hetherington, Head, International Poetry Studies Institute, CCCR, University of Canberra; Dr Cassandra Atherton, Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning), Deakin University
Abstract
Prose poetry is a resurgent literary form in the English-speaking world. Over recent years we have researched the field of Anglophone prose poetry in writing our scholarly book Prose Poetry: An Introduction for Princeton University Press and editing and introducing the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry for Melbourne University Press. These publications give a full and accessible account of prose poetry’s history and significance while defining its key characteristics and charting its main lines of development from the nineteenth century (and earlier) to the present day. In this session we will discuss prose poetry’s challenge to traditional ideas of literary form and the way it opens new spaces for writers to transform daily experience into riveting poetry that reshapes the resources of prose while redefining the poetic. We will also explore ways in which prose poetry is a political form that can lobby for change.
Biographies
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 30 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. With Cassandra Atherton, he is co-author of Prose Poetry: An Introduction (Princeton University Press, 2020) and co-editor of Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (MUP, 2020).
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. With Paul Hetherington, she is co-author of Prose Poetry: An Introduction (Princeton University Press, 2020) and co-editor of Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (MUP, 2020).
Ross Gibson is Centenary Professor in Creative and Cultural Research at the University of Canberra. The outcomes of his creative-practice-led research include a dozen books, several films, radio feature programs, exhibition installations, and live performances.
Additional Information
UC acknowledges the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the lands where Bruce campus is situated. We wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of Canberra and the region. We also acknowledge all other First Nations Peoples on whose lands we gather.