And, in Australia, David Malouf and Tom Shapcott are favourite prose-writing
poets for me. Malouf's latest poetry collection is Typewriter Music, and it
sold well in the 'big box' stores and was discussed in the mass media
because his name is so well-known through his novels. He was definitely a
poet first. Many poets here turn their hand to prose without dropping an
iamb - Anthony Lawrence, John Kinsella, Dorothy Hewett - and some, like
Dorothy Porter, write cross-genre verse novels. (My novel sits in an
envelope on the kitchen table, waiting for me to drive it to its next
publisher's reader.)
It's a different ball game, for sure, but with many of the same pleasures
and satisfactions.
I recently wrote a short story using a Silliman technique: the story has an
unusual surface for prose, for sure, but a narrative is slowly exposed.
Friends have been confused by its cross-genre status, and a journal editor
praised it to the sky but wouldn't publish because she couldn't pigeonhole
it. (Sigh.)
Andrew
On 10/03/2008, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hey, you do, & the past two have been fascinating, as were Tina's.
> But I think we have to admit that some poets (I sometimes envy,
> sometimes think of them as 'traitors' to poetry) have written very
> fine prose, indeed, that very Cohen being one, Ondaatje another (just
> here in Canada we have a number of writers who began in poetry but
> have become best known for their work in prose).
>
> Doug
> On 9-Mar-08, at 4:06 AM, kasper salonen wrote:
>
> > and you may notice from my ambling paragraphs that I do enjoy writing,
> > and also talking about myself.. but I know few concepts more revolting
> > than a poet trying to write prose for the first time -- think what an
> > ugly cross-breed it'd be.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
>
> Stars, rain, forests.
> Stars rain forests.
>
> John Newlove
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/
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