ENGL469G Short Prose Forms

What are short prose forms? How do you define or categorize something as short prose? What is the difference between prose in fiction and prose poetry?

In this class we will look at the innovativeness and diversity in short prose forms by bringing the quality of expansiveness to our understanding of what short prose forms could look like. Through our study of various established and new forms of short prose including short-shorts, flash fiction, micro fiction, prose poems, and other hybrid forms, we will create a growing arsenal of defining characteristics of short prose. We will spend time in the boundaries of genres and explore short forms that resist generalization. The organizing theme will be brevity. And our goal: reading and practicing writing that is exciting, surprising and memorable. Requirements include discussion questions, two short assignments, and a final project. Writers studied may include Claudia Rankine, Elizabeth Bishop, Adrienne Rich, Gertrude Stein, Jorge Luis Borges, Frank O’ Hara, Rabindranath Tagore, and Charles Baudelaire.

Section(s):
0101 - Sabrina Islam