The Prose Poem

We thought choosing a longlist was difficult, but choosing the shortlist was even harder.

Huge congratulations to the authors of the following shortlisted poems.  Do feel free to let people know if you are a shortlisted author, but please don’t name your poem until results are announced as adjudication is still in process.

Spring Short 2024 Shortlist

• A Farrier Goes to the Dentist
• Assigned Readings
• August
• Bible School, Revisited
• Blue Heart
• Everything is Subject to Change
• Fetch (First line begins: “I pretend to throw”)
• First Meeting
• For a while, after a funeral
• How a Salamander Sheds
• I Used to Think I’d Be a Good Mortician
• In this Version of the Break-up, We Break-up
• July
• Mothers
• Musings Between a Field of Grain & Downtown Birmingham
• On Monday morning, a bird came to my window
• Pieces of Me
• Postcard
• Prologue
• Self-Portrait as Harold and His Purple Crayon in an Active Shooter Lockdown
• Something You Give Back After Keeping It for a While?
• Sundowners
• The Life Cycle of a Fairy Tale Princess
• The Wind’s Eye
• Winter Musings

We’ve been blown away by the quantity and quality of the submissions we received for our 2024 Spring Short competition and it’s been incredibly difficult to determine a longlist.

Huge congratulations to the authors of the longlisted poems.  Do feel free to let people know if you are a longlisted author, but please don’t name your poem until results are announced as adjudication is still in process.

Spring Short 2024 Longlist

• A Farrier Goes to the Dentist
• All Poems
• Assigned Readings
• August
• Bible School, Revisited
• Blue Heart
• Don’t Break the Spine
• Everything is Subject to Change
• Explaining Love to a Robot
• Fetch (First line begins: “I pretend to throw”)
• First Meeting
• Flashes
• For a while, after a funeral
• Glangel
• How a Salamander Sheds
• I Used to Think I’d Be a Good Mortician
• I Wonder What the NSA Thinks of my Search History
• In this Version of the Break-up, We Break-up
• July
• Logement à Louer
• Longing, noun
• Mermaid Sculptures with the Rheumatologist
• Mothers
• Musings Between a Field of Grain & Downtown Birmingham
• No, I Don’t Regret Loving You
• No-One in the World
• On Monday morning, a bird came to my window
• Paralysed In The Snacks Aisle
• Pastry crumbs
• Pieces of Me
• Polyester Housecoat
• Postcard
• Prologue
• Robinia Pseudoacacia, commonly black locust
• Self-Portrait as Harold and His Purple Crayon in an Active Shooter Lockdown
• some kinda ecstasy
• Something You Give Back After Keeping It for a While?
• Spilled Bananas
• Spoiler Alert
• Sundowners
• The Life Cycle of a Fairy Tale Princess
• The Seawall
• The Touch
• The Wind’s Eye
• This is the One Where Gravity Man Bends to Tie His Shoe
• Vietnam and Other Wars
• Walks with Somebody
• We Were Just Kids, 1960
• Winter Musings
• You Clench It, But It’s Air.
• You, I and Night