We have kept the price of MET print edition very low for the first two years, at $12.95 USD for a journal that is a 250–260 page book. That price is not sustainable, however, and we must raise the price, beginning with the next issue, Autumn 2008, to $14.95. As you who purchase the print edition have undoubtedly noticed, we have narrowed the margins and reduced the font size to get as much as possible into each issue. There really is no more we can do to pack more tanka and related materials into that many pages. If the journal were made any longer, shipping and handling costs would jump.

For subscribers to the MET print edition, any and all remaining issues on your current subscription will, of course, remain at $12.95 per issue. New subscriptions will be at the increased price of $14.95 each but annual subscriptions will be discounted to $56.00 for four issues plus S&H.

We actually considered closing down the digital edition because it has become so labor-intensive to hand-code hundreds of highly-formatted pages in HTML. However, we are very aware that thousands read only the digital edition, so we are changing the process to streamline it. This change is being initiated with the current issue, MET 8. All or virtually all of the poetry pages, articles, and reviews will be PDF pages. That means you will have to read them using the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most of you undoubtedly have this program already on your PC but for those who do not, you can quickly (and for free) download the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. The contributors’ notes (bio sketches) will be on a single PDF document rather than being linked separately to each poet’s pages.

Last, but not least, we will begin offering a PDF ebook of the digital edition for sale, at a price substantially lower than the print edition and available worldwide without shipping and handling costs, losses in transit, etc.. This will be included in the copyrights we acquire when accepting a submission for MET 9 and subsequent issues. The difficulties of buying printed books in some foreign countries has persuaded us to make an ebook version available. Please take this into account when making submissions for MET 9 and afterwards. If anyone who has made an early submission for MET 9 (there are about 4 we received after the MET 8 deadline) does NOT want to grant ebook rights to MET, please contact me to withdraw your submission.

Issue Vol. 3, No. 1. Autumn 2008

You are invited to submit tanka for the Autumn 2008 issue of Modern English Tanka. The submission deadline is August 15, 2008. Submissions will NOT close earlier than the deadline.

Modern English Tanka is a quarterly journal—a print literary journal, a PDF ebook, and a digital online magazine—dedicated to publishing and promoting fine English tanka (including tanka written in cinquain and cinqku set forms). We are interested in both traditional and innovative verse of high quality and in all serious attempts to assimilate the best of the Japanese waka/tanka genres into a continuously developing English short verse tradition. In addition to verse, we publish articles, essays, book notes & reviews, interviews, letters to the editor, etc., related to tanka.

MET specializes in single tanka but tanka in sets and sequences will be considered as well. Collaborative tanka sequences are generally not wanted. While the five-line criterion is generally definitive for tanka, MET will consider variant forms on an individual basis (like everything else!) Serious poetry and adult themes are appreciated. Doggerel and anything that is pornographic or in any way nasty, hateful, bigoted, or partisan political, will not be accepted. All such judgments will be made at the sole discretion of the editor.

Previously unpublished work, not on offer elsewhere, is solicited.

Modern English Tanka, Baltimore, Maryland USA. Website: www.modernenglishtanka.com/ Editor: Denis M. Garrison. Contributing Editor: Michael McClintock. Email up to 40 tanka, or email articles, reviews, essays, letters to the editor, etc., to the Editor at SUBMISSIONS (at) MODERNENGLISHTANKA (dot) COM. Before submitting, please read the detailed submission guidelines on the website at http://www.modernenglishtankapress.com/MET/metsubmit.html. Modern English Tanka looks for top quality tanka in natural, modern English idiom. No payment for publication. No contributor copies. Publishes a print edition (6" x 9" trade paperback), a PDF ebook, and an online digital edition.

Thank you for sharing this call widely.

Sincerely,
Editors, Modern English Tanka
http://www.modernenglishtanka.com/  
http://www.shortverse.com/MET/