Inkling Press publication underwritten by NC Arts Council Grant

Scent of Jasmine and Brine ‘soars’ says author Liza Dalby

The long-awaited third collection of poetry by internationally acclaimed poet Linda Jeannette Ward, of Coinjock, North Carolina (USA), was released on July 1, 2007. In Scent of Jasmine and Brine, Ward once again treats readers to her own unique English-language interpretation of classic Japanese-style verse—with soul-satisfying results. Designed and produced by Inkling Press, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the 100 page, perfect bound collection brings together 97 individual poems written by Ward in the traditional Japanese tanka form and features an introduction by renowned poet and Haiku Society of America president Pamela Miller Ness. The publication of Scent of Jasmine and Brine was made possible, in part, by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, through the Rocky Mount Arts Center. This was Ward’s second award from the Arts Council; in 2002 she received a grant which helped fund the publication of her prize-winning second book, a delicate dance of wings: haibun by Linda Jeannette Ward.

"Scent of Jasmine and Brine takes the ancient poetic form of the Japanese tanka and soars with it in English," writes Liza Dalby in her commentary on the cover of Ward’s latest book. Dalby, a cultural anthropologist, is the author of Geisha, The Tale of Murasaki and served as consultant on the film Memoirs of a Geisha. "Here is a heightened awareness of time and place," she says, "things made precious by a focus of words—Linda Jeannette Ward's poems are simultaneously telescopes and microscopes into the world and all the senses." Ward is no novice in the poetry arena. In addition to her previous, highly praised collections—a frayed red thread: tanka love poems (Clinging Vine Press, 2000); and a delicate dance of wings (Winfred Press, 2002)—Ward’s poems, in both Japanese and Western free-verse styles, have been published in literary journals worldwide and anthologized in such collections as Haiku for Lovers (MQ Publications, Ltd., London, 2003); big sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, USA, 2006); and Tea Ceremony (Koyama Press, France, 2000). Her literary talents also extend to editing: in 2000 Ward served as editor for Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor 1990–1999, published by Clinging Vine Press.

Since 1997 Ward has received numerous awards in the U.S. and abroad for her haiku, tanka, and haibun. The Haiku Society of America awarded a delicate dance of wings the 2003 Merit Book Award for "Best Book of Haibun"; and her poems have been honored in contests sponsored by the Yellow Moon literary magazine (Australia); the Tanka Society of America; the Japan Society on Water Environment; the New Zealand Tanka Competition; the British Haiku Society; the Tallahassee Writers’ Association; the San Francisco International Haiku Senryu and Tanka Contest; and the Japan Tanka Poets’ Society.

While influenced by the traditional Japanese poetic forms, Ward often writes her poems in the modern style favored by most English-language poets. Her haiku and tanka have been included in several "how-to" books on the subject of writing these Japanese forms in English, including: Internationalization of Japanese Poems (Chugainippohsha, 2002); Haiku: A Poet’s Guide, by Lee Gurga (Modern Haiku Press, 2003); and How to Haiku, by Bruce Ross (Tuttle Publishing, 2002). A native of Washington, D.C., Ward now lives near the Outer Banks of North Carolina with her husband and two cats.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact: Linda Jeannette Ward: by email at tankapoet@yahoo.com. Publisher information at: www.inklingpress.ca.

To order Scent of Jasmine and Brine, send check or international money order for $20.00 US, plus $4.00 S/H each payable to: Magpie Productions, PO Box 52014, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2T5.