PP/FF: An Anthology

by Peter Conners (editor)

From the “Introduction to PP/FF” by Peter “PP/FF is meant as a label that locates the territory of prose poetry and flash fiction by symbol rather than by language prejudiced by old genre baggage. PP/FF is prose poetry and flash fiction balanced on a makeshift teeter-totter that never lands. PP/FF is a symbol of a vital and important literary form that is constantly in flux, appropriating, moving and growing. Perhaps the writers in this anthology will be thought of as PP/FF writers. Perhaps poets, fiction writers, or followers of Orpheus. I have no interest in creating new confinements. Genre is easier to sell, to teach, to quantify and review, but what does it have to do with creating new art?”

Genres: Poetry

234 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

In the mid-80s, Peter Conners submerged into a life of writing, music, and exploration, and he hasn’t looked back since. He has published nine books of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, and edited dozens of volumes of poetry and prose. His nonfiction books – Cornell ‘77, Growing Up Dead, JAMerica, and White Hand Society — have garnered him a reputation as a leading chronicler of the Grateful Dead, jam band, and countercultural community.

Conners regularly gives readings and lectures at universities, conferences, bookstores, art galleries, and on panels related to music, counterculture, poetry, fiction, and editing. His books have received reviews in such places as Rolling Stone, Vice, Library Journal, Penthouse, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, The Onion, and the New York Post. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that “Conners writes like a poet and researches like a scholar,” and NPR Books likened his writing to “…the way music sounds when your surrender has no limit.”

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, I am in this book, and I am also its publisher. But it's still one of the best books out there to introduce yourself to the new fiction, or the new poetry.... It's about the line in-between, and the one that isn't quite described by "prose poem" either. It's less of a single thing than prose-poems; what makes this anthology work is how all-over-the-road these pieces are. And many of them are quite remarkable: pieces by Ander Monson, Kent Johnson, Lydia Davis, and Johannes Goransson particularly took my breath away.

[Steven Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book for a writing class, but I've come back to it a number of times since. A great collection of the Prose poetry/Flash fiction genre.

[Doug Martin]

Check out my review of this anthology at the Brooklyn Rail at http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/10/b....