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Pillow Book [1]

Creative Nonfiction [2]
2.4.21

“The process of writing prose can intimidate even the most seasoned poets,” writes Khadijah Queen in the latest installment of Craft Capsules [3]. “Using the zuihitsu form provided just the open space I needed.” In the essay, Queen argues that having a form as flexible as the zuihitsu, a Japanese form of hybrid poem-essay invented by Sei Shōnagon in the eleventh century, allows for lyricism to be maintained across a longer prose piece, in which patterns of image and sound can keep a narrative going. Write an essay inspired by the zuihitsu form, beginning with a simple observation and building that image with textures of rich poetic fragments.


Source URL:https://www.pw.org/content/pillow_book

Links
[1] https://www.pw.org/content/pillow_book [2] https://www.pw.org/genre/creativenonfiction [3] https://www.pw.org/content/craft_capsule_poets_prose