The French Prose Poem

An Anthology

Mary Ann Caws, Michel Delville

$39.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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French

NYRB Poets
30 September 2025

Literature: history & criticism

The first English-language collection of its kind, this anthology offers an overview of the past and present history of a long-underappreciated-and now quickly burgeoning-poetic tradition.

The first English-language collection of its kind, this anthology offers an overview of the past and present history of a long-underappreciated-and now quickly burgeoning-poetic tradition.

For decades, the prose poem has variously delighted, confounded, and incensed readers and critics. Until recent years, it had been confined to the margins of literary history as a rather disturbing and elusive oddity. All this is changing.

The prose poem, which has long been neglected and underrepresented in mainstream and experimental publications alike, is growing in popularity in the world of contemporary poetry. It is more widely available than ever before, thanks to the joint efforts of an ever-increasing number of imaginative writers, publishers, and editors. And still, this volume is the first anthology of the French prose poem to see the light in the English-speaking world.

This anthology gathers a wide range of poets practicing what Michael Riffaterre memorably called ""the literary genre with an oxymoron for a name,"" from the prose poem's official ""inventors"" (Aloysius Bertrand and Charles Baudelaire) to a younger generation of poets from all over the French-speaking world.

The poems in this bilingual collection have been rendered into English by some of the finest translators of French literature, including John Ashbery, Mark Polizzotti, Richard Sieburth, Rosmarie Waldrop, and many others.

By: Mary Ann Caws, Michel Delville
Imprint: NYRB Poets
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 178mm, Width: 114mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9781681377322
ISBN 10: 1681377322
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Mary Ann Caws is a scholar of English, French, and comparative literature and serves as Distinguished Professor Emerita at the graduate school of the City University of New York. Caws is an Officier of Ordre des Palmes academiques and Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, and a former Trustee of the Alliance Francaise. She has translated numerous works from the French and is the editor of Pierre Reverdy, also available from NYRB Poets. Michel Delville is a Belgian musician, writer, and critic. He teaches English and American literature at the University of Li ge, where he also directs the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Poetics. His awards and distinctions include the 1998 SAMLA Book Award, the Choice Outstanding Book Award, and the Leon Guerin Prize.