As with any anthology that claims to provide a thorough overview of a particular species of writing, it is easy enough to criticize the methods and choices of this introduction. For example, this book simply does not provide as comprehensive an international sampling of prose poems as its aforementioned predecessors. Though the editors rightly insist that the prose poem has come into English, somewhat slowly, through poets writing in French and Spanish, their selections do not always make this connection clear. Surprisingly, neither Baudelaire nor Bertrand made it into the book. On the other hand, both of these writers and many of the other poets that were omitted are so thoroughly anthologized and celebrated elsewhere that the editors might be giving a subtle nod to the need to move beyond them to provide an account of the uniquely English and specifically American tradition of the prose poem. However, at the risk of exploring that tradition, the book sometimes appears too provincial.

The book takes many risks, both in terms of how it is structured and which authors have been included. Despite some minor limitations… An Introduction to the Prose Poem is an important achievement for the tradition of prose poetry in English.

Still, the poems that made it into the book help to illuminate how prose poems have been written, particularly in the U.S., during the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Clements and Dunham expose a tradition that, once viewed as marginal and eccentric, has become an important and integral part of American poetry. Their survey of prose poetry, while lacking in some regards, is certainly extensive. It includes several of the most highly regarded poets around the world — Francis Ponge, Max Jacob, Miroslav Holub — and many of the essential American poets to write prose poems — James Wright, James Tate, Carolyn Forché, Russell Edson, Cornelius Eady. The list of poets extends from Nobel laureates — Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda — to the rare but quickly multiplying American poets identified almost exclusively as prose poets —Russell Edson and Nin Andrews — and to relatively unknown though hopefully up-and-coming poets.

The book takes many risks, both in terms of how it is structured and which authors have been included. Despite some minor limitations — the anthology does not include poet bios, for example — An Introduction to the Prose Poem is an important achievement for the tradition of prose poetry in English. Whereas Benedikt’s and Friebert and Young’s anthologies revealed an international phenomenon that American poets were largely missing out on, Clements and Dunham’s collection shows how thoroughly prose poetry has been integrated into American poetics. It has been a long time coming. Prose poetry, which often makes use of irony and parody, is perhaps uniquely suited to the predisposition of the current generation of poets. In thirty or so years, the prose poem has evolved from being an obscure method of composing that established poets might experiment with — James Wright and Kenneth Koch immediately come to mind — to a staple that, like the sonnet, most responsible poets will simply have to come to terms with in their own writing at some point. Certainly Clements and Dunham’s anthology will be an important means of helping poets do just that.