The Longette

Welcome to a brand new poetry form—and a Revolution by Writing!

You have reached the home of the Longette, developed in 2025 by Wordflower’s editor Catherin J Pascal Dunk—in collaboration with Elly Belfort-Mattos and inspired by Karuna Mistry.

There are still very few Longettes in existence, so right now you have an exciting opportunity. You can be among the first people in the world to ever write one. And you might just change (and be on the right side of) history.

But be warned, the Longette has (to quote Shaun Tenzenmen) some ‘insane rules’—and it demands critical thinking, plus several hours of your time.

To paraphase Nolcha Fox, even the Longette Lite has the tendency to twist your brain into a pretzel.

Ready to dust off that thinking cap and join us?

True Longettes

Click here for the rules: How to write a Longette

Published Longettes:

  1. Catherin J Pascal Dunk’s Thoughts on the Longette: what a longette is and what a longette is not, and a call to action—the world’s first known longette, written in December 2025.
  2. Shaun Tenzenmen’s First Nations Longette This Earth Keeps the Memory of Gadigal Footsteps Through Fire, Silence, Survival, and Unbroken Song Across Two Centuries of Dispossession and Resistance – 27th December 2025.
  3. Mimmalisa Trifilò’s The front door creaks open — stillness interrupted — heavy footsteps cross the threshold, the waft of body odour displacing fresh air, a familiar voice can be heard,
  4. Emma Driver’s In defence of the humanity of the listener in the Era of Monologue 🔊➡️🔊👂and a reminder to myself to pipe down and listen, for pity’s sake
  5. Dennis Ryle’s Protest Longette “When the public square shrinks beneath the weight of fear and fragile power, yet rises again, phoenix-like, finding its voice, reversing the onus on the lawmakers” coming 25 Feb
  6. When will your name appear here?

The Longette Lite

Click here for: How to write a Longette Lite

Published Longette Lites:

  1. Nolcha Fox’s I’ve Been Standing in Line for Five Days at the Motor Vehicles Department to Renew My License While My Husband Started Divorce Proceedings and Sold the House
    Congratulations Nolcha on your world-wide first-ever Longette Lite boasting rights! 🏆
  2. Catherin J Pascal Dunk’s Sunset on the human race / A tardigrade could do better / Traditions get mangled, entangled, star-spangled / Genocide as a form of tourism: A slam poetry Longette Lite from the deviser
  3. Jessica Perini’s At the local swimming pool — the only one with unbarbered legs and no towel, chocolates dragging me down — but the sky is blue
  4. Karuna Mistry’s Colour Contrast: A Various And Varied Variety — on Blackness, Whiteness, Greyness, Brownness — by Blacklisted & Anonymous; Whitelisted & Obvious; Gray, Greyer & Greyness; Brownlisted & Balanceness
  5. Jessica Perini joins us again for a sequel to her first Longette Lite with A different day — an ocean pool — more forgetting — a smile that once would have fluttered a heart — no scalpels and luck holds firm
  6. Nolcha Fox’s humorous response to January’s First Nations prompt, I was stuck on the Reservation, so I married a Native American man (my new boss), and cancelled my doctor’s appointment in Billings, Montana
  7. Shantell Powell’s powerful Inuk/Mi’kmaw First Nations Longette Lite I Am Pretty Sure Those are the Same Cops I Saw Dragging a Disabled Woman Across the Pavement By Her Dislocated Arm A Few Years Ago
  8. Jessica Perini’s Fked by the patriarchy Again and Again – we take the chairs, we send the phones, we pay the theft and we say NO, fk that! (edited by Catherin J Pascal Dunk)
  9. Jessica Perini’s Poem for Renee Good  –– Poet and speaker of truth –– Your brains splayed,  You exposed them, in the most dramatic of ways. Bitch. What dies there, where you lived your last stanzas?
  10. Who else is keen?

The Monthly Longette Prompts

  1. January 2026: First Nations
  2. February 2026: Commercialism
  3. March 2026: coming 1 March

The Annual Cooperatition

The Inaugural Longette Cooperation kicks off in November 2026, with entries closing on 13 December (13/12). Please subscribe to Wordflowerpoetry.com and Growing-the-Future.org for updates, and watch this space!

The Merch

  • Limited edition eggshell-paper stickers: available soon!
  • Tshirts or cloth badges under consideration

[Cover image from Pexels Free Photos.]