Looking at the job ad for Zing magazine, asking for creative prose. I e-mailed for submission guidelines and got:

We would like to feature the work of new and established writers, with emphasis on publishing short pieces of prose and articles. We do not accept fiction at this time.

I'm too embarassed to ask her but what is creative prose if it isn't fiction or what is fiction???

Is it just me?

I think you should ask her exactly what she means... and then tell the rest of us... damned if I know.

Dee.

so it isn't just me!

No. But, judging from the lack of response, maybe it's just you and me!

Dee

well, I've e-mailed anyway so I'll let YOU know, Dee (;

Thank you... is that a French smiley?

Oooh, it was supposed to be a wink...

Try Aesthetica. They seem very nice and very keen to take on new writers. There's an interview here too.
Sue

Thanks Sue, will take a look.

Here's the answer:
What we are looking for in terms of creative prose might include reflections on life, taken from experiences, which aim to inspire, motivate or provide insight for the reader. Effectively, the prose represents thoughts from every day life. For example, this might include a travel piece, reflections while out walking or contemplations about relationships, life, nature or the change of seasons. These creative pieces are almost poetic in their delivery but written as short articles based on personal thoughts, opinions and feelings. The creative prose has the richness which you would find in short stories in terms of description, but in effect, they are short articles.

Nice talking to you Dee!
Elspeth

Same here, Elspeth. Are you going to have a go?

Dee

Unlikely. I'm not very poetic in general and am trying not to get too distracted from other things which I should be writing.

Dee

This sounds like one for you! Or is that just me being a bit presumptious?

Jumbox

Me!? What?

Ooh ooh, can I answer? Can I answer? I've just been looking in to this very thing this week. From what I can tell, any writing described as 'prose' is based around real life. In fact (strictly speaking) prose is the opposite of poetry: flat, commonplace, dull, structureless etc (hence the word prosaic). But, because that would be too easy for us all to grasp there's a raft of writing styles between prose and poetry called 'something prose'. So, poetic prose (which I thought should be an oxymoron) is poetic styling applied to writings on real events, but not poetry, and not fiction. I hadn’t heard ‘creative prose’ mentioned specifically but the description you posted sounds about right. A classic example of poetic prose is Elizabeth Smart’s “By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept”, and (I just looked this up and haven’t read it) “Drop” by Mat Johnson is an example of creative prose.

But I know the feeling. I look at the descriptions and think yeah one day I’ll give that a go, but would sort of be a good idea to get to grips with the basics first.

And Dee? Stop being so modest: ‘Risen’ is most certainly creative or poetic prose (probably poetic). ‘I am a phoenix. I am risen. I am bread.’ Indeed.