Playful Seriousness and Serious Play: Poetry as creative practice in the international prose poetry project

The International Poetry Studies Institute’s (IPSI) prose poetry project was started almost accidentally in late 2014. Since then it has become a site of highly productive creative play. At the time of writing, the prose poetry project consists of 21 members who have collectively written more than 1,500 prose poems. We will argue that it is an exemplary site for creative practice because it enables its members to generate new prose poetry enjoyably while asking very little of them except the production and sharing of their creative work. By identifying key elements of play that help stimulate creative practice in the prose poetry project—including the elements of sanctuary and ambiguity, and the interactions among these—we aim to demonstrate the significance of play for producing creative encounters with the world.