Inside of Paradise (commentary)

‘It is time for prose poetry to be more broadly recognised as an important form
of poetry, and for it to be identifed as a signifcant and growing part of Australian
literature.’
Cassandra: It’s fascinating to see how contemporary women poets are
using the prose poetry form in inventive ways. When Paul and I compiled Melbourne
University Press’s Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (2020) we were struck by the
strength of women’s prose poetry in Australia.
Paul: Yes, that’s true. While we didn’t originally aim to include any
particular number of prose poems by women, the anthology ended up including 81
women prose poets out of a total of 149 writers. It was thrilling to encounter so much
fine prose poetry.