TANKA NEWS

ATLAS POETICA 2 published

DMG — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:22:43 GMT

The second issue of ATLAS POETICA, for Autumn 2008, has been published. Copies are on sale at the MET Press website - www.modernenglishtankapress.com - and at Lulu.com - http://stores.lulu.com/modernenglishtanka .

Check out this issue - it is full of wonderful works.

The Atlas Poetica website is at www.atlaspoetica.com .

Bil Higginson and Penny Harter

DMG — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:49:53 GMT

Tuesday, August 26, 200

Bill and Penny need your prayer

Please keep Bill Higginson and Penny Harter in your thoughts and prayers. Bill has been hospitalized for two weeks, including having had minor surgery to get a sample of the quickly growing and inoperable tumor in the center of his chest. Today, the tumor was diagnosed as malignant but highly treatable. Since the mass has been pressing on the esophagus and, therefore, inhibiting Bill's ability to eat much, he has been getting adjunct nourishment, and will continue to do so until the tumor shrinks.

He will start chemo this Friday in the hospital, to be followed, after several chemo cycles to shrink the mass, with targeted radiation. His case was so difficult to diagnose that the hospital's tumor board, which includes several Sloan Kettering physicians, will discuss the case on Thursday. If all goes well, he may come home late next week and continue treatment on an outpatient basis. Here is Bill and Penny's address

Penny Harter / William J. Higginson

P. O. Bo 1402

Summit, NJ 07902

Penny's email address ispenhart@2hweb.net

I know these two wonderful people would greatly appreciate your prayers, cards, and get well wishes.

Posted by Curtis Dunlap at11:34 PM

===========

posted here by Denis Garrison

A Note on the Passing of Masanobu Fukuoka

DMG — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:26:25 GMT

The following note is from an email from Sanford Goldstein in Japan.
================================================

August l9
Dear Denis--

. . . I thought I would let you know. On p. 111 of Four Decades on My Tanka Road, I introduce At the Hut of the Small Mind. In today's Japan Times I learned that Masanobu Fukuoka, the pioneer of natural farming in Japan, died on August 16. I had gone to interview him in July l982 and stayed at the farm four nights and three days. I did not say anything negative about the Zen farmer in my tanka poems, but I had gone to interview him with about 28 questions and we never got past the first one, which he said would take a lifetime to answer. At any rate, my friend and I SAID the Buddhist prayer for him--"Namu Amida Butsu"--Amida is the Buddhist goddess of light, which contains several meanings including compassion. ONE has to travel through l,000 trillion countries to reach the Western Paradise. Each of these countries is larger than the universe itself. But by saying the 7 syllables in NAMU AMIDA BUTSU, one gets to the Western Paradise in a second. I met the Zen master farmer only that one time, but his death at 95 from natural causes saddens me. Natural farming kept him healthy all these years.

Fondly, Sanford

================================================

posted by Denis Garrison

PRUNE JUICE: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka - Call for Submissions

DMG — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:28:26 GMT

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

for

PRUNE JUICE: JOURNAL OF SENRYU AND KYOKA

www.prunejuicejournal.com

You are invited to submit senryu and/or kyoka for the premiere issue of Prune Juice, Winter 2009. Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka is a biannual journal—a print literary journal, an ebook, and a digital online magazine—dedicated to publishing and promoting fine English senryu and kyoka. Selection Criteria: Senryu generally emphasize human foibles and frailties, usually satirically, ironically, humorously. Season words are not necessary nor usual in senryu. Kyoka have a different history than senryu; nevertheless, for modern kyoka in English, the definition is similar: a poem in the tanka form but with the satirical, ironic, humorous aspects of senryu. We are looking for fresh works, not clichéd poems. Wit is highly appreciated, as well as insight. We appreciate a wide range of both genres, from the gently humorous to the most wicked satire. Our tastes run towards the wicked end of the scale, but all sorts are welcome, with these exceptions: No pornographic, gross, scatological, bigoted, or hateful poems; no personal attacks on private or public persons. All selection decisions will be made at the sole discretion of the editor.

Submissions for Prune Juice 1, Winter 2009 are open from now until December 15, 2008. The premiere issue publishes January 1, 2009. Submissions do not close before the announced date. The digital issue will be posted online just before the print and ebook editions go to press. We publish in the print edition, that is, 4.25" x 6.87" paperback pocket book, in a PDF ebook format, and in the online digital edition.

NO SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS: Please do not submit anything on offer anywhere else. We are not in the market for works under consideration for publication elsewhere.

NOT PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED: We primarily seek to publish fine senryu and kyoka that have not been previously published. Each poet is personally responsible for noting in the submission any previous publication of any submitted work.

HOW TO SUBMIT FOR PRUNE JUICE. You may submit up to ten senryu and/or ten kyoka at one time. We may publish as few as 1 or 2 poems or a larger number. Please do NOT send us works that are still in work. Please send us polished works, error-free. Make your submission by sending your poems in to Prune Juice in the body of an email. Do NOT send any attachments. Emails with attachments will be deleted. If you need clarification, or have a special situation you want to discuss, please feel free to write to the Editor at rengagirl@yahoo.com.

SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO RENGAGIRL@YAHOO.COM.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND SUBMISSIONS TO ANY OTHER ADDRESS.

WHAT TO SUBMIT. Prune Juice needs the following information: 1. Contributor Note: include your full name and your residential location (city, State/Province, and country). 2. Your email address (will not be routinely included in the published Contributor Note). 3. If you are younger than 16 years of age, tell us so that we may comply with the U.S.A. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (the COPPA applies to children under 13; our minimum age limit is 16 as a matter of editorial policy - you must be 16 or older to submit anything to Prune Juice). 4. The submission itself.

THERE IS NO PAYMENT FOR CONTRIBUTORS. No payment will be made. No contributor copies are furnished free.

CONTRIBUTOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES. If you choose to submit any work(s) for publication in Prune Juice, please read and familiarize yourself with the complete Submission Guidelines available online at: http://www.shortverse.com/prunejuice/submit.html , as well as our Copyright, Privacy, and Editorial Policies. By submitting any work(s) to Prune Juice, you are representing to Prune Juice and its editor and publisher that you have the copyright to the work(s) and you are permitting Prune Juice copyrights in accordance with Prune Juice’s published Copyright Policy, and that you hold Prune Juice and its editor and publisher harmless in all respects from any copyright infringement caused by your submission.

Please send us your best senryu and kyoka!

Thank you for sharing this call widely.

Sincerely,

Alexis Rotella, Editor

Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka

Email: rengagirl@yahoo.com

http://www.prunejuicejournal.com/

Eucalypt - Call for Submissions

DMG — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:53:14 GMT

Closing September 30, 2008

Eucalypt; a tanka journal

Published May and November each year www.eucalypt.info.

Send up to 6 of your best tanka for consideration. There is no submission fee.

No more than 2 tanka by an individual poet will be accepted for each issue.

The print magazine is for poems only and is accompanied by a complimentary electronic newsletter for news and discussion.

Editor: Beverley George PO Box 37 Pearl Beach NSW 2256 Australia editor@eucalypt.info

AMBROSIA: Journal of Fine Haiku - Call for Submissions

DMG — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:44:13 GMT

Call for Submissions

Ambrosia

Issue 1. Autumn 2008

You are invited to submit haiku for the Autumn 2008 issue of Ambrosia. The submission deadline is October 1, 2008. Submissions will NOT close earlier than the deadline.

Ambrosia is a quarterly journal—a print literary journal, a PDF ebook, and a digital online magazine—dedicated to publishing and promoting fine English haiku in traditional style.

Ambrosia specializes in fine single haiku in tercet form. Senryu are not wanted. Collaborations and sequences are generally not wanted. All selection decisions will be made at the sole discretion of the editor.

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

Ambrosia, Baltimore, Maryland USA. Website: www.ambrosiahaiku.com/ Editor: Denis M. Garrison. Email up to 10 haiku to the Editor at dmg@themetpress.com. Before submitting, please read the detailed submission guidelines and haiku selection criteria on the website at www.ambrosiahaiku.com/submit.html. Ambrosia looks for top quality haiku in natural, modern English idiom. No payment for publication. No contributor copies. Publishes a print edition (4.25" x 6.87" paperback pocket book), a PDF ebook, and an online digital edition.

Thank you for sharing this call widely.

Sincerely,
Denis M. Garrison, Editor, Ambrosia
http://www.ambrosiahaiku.com/

Modern Haiga - new work posted / more submissions wanted

DMG — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:28:30 GMT

The board of editors of Modern Haiga (online at http://www.modernhaiga.com/ have selected ten new works from recent submissions and have posted them to the online edition of the journal.

Submissions are continuously open through 2008. Please consider submitting some of your best work - anytime! All styles of graphic poetry will be considered.

The editors - Denis M. Garrison, Alexis Rotella, Liam Wilkinson, Linda Papanicolaou, and Raffael de Gruttola.
www.ModernHaiga.com

Submit to: submissions@modernhaiga.com

Modern English Tanka online honored

DMG — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:23:47 GMT

We are pleased to announce that the online editions of Modern English Tanka quarterly journal have been listed in the Dzanc Books Best of the Web 2008 book, now available at major booksellers.

MET is online at http://www.shortverse.com/MET/

You can read about the Best of the Web 2008 book at Dzanc's website: http://www.dzancbooks.org/bow.html

We are very grateful to all the fine poets, writers, and artists whose works have made Modern English Tanka worthy of such recognition, and to Dzanc Books for selecting MET.

best wishes,
The Editors, MET

MET 8 published and MET 9 Call for Submissions

DMG — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:55:28 GMT

Modern English Tanka 8, the Summer 2008 issue, has been published online and in print. The print version is for sale on www.themetpress.com / www.modernenglishtankapress.com (either address works). It is a blockbuster issue you won't want to miss.

This announcement was published with MET 8:

As we close out Volume 2 of Modern English Tanka, we are going to initiate some changes in both the print and digital editions.

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.

=== end of MET 8 announcement ===

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for MET 9

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/

MET Press website now selling books on the website

DMG — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:46:31 GMT

The MET Press website - www.modernenglishtankapress.com and www.themetpress.com - now has a functioning ecommerce shopping cart. That means you can purchase MET Press books and journals, including subscriptions, online at our own website, using PayPal, American Express, Visa, MasterCard, or Discover. Please check it out!

best wishes,
Denis M. Garrison

Ron Zheng's poetography books now available online

DMG — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:42:41 GMT

Ron Zheng writes:

"Last week, my poetography books "leaving my found eden' and "seven 1/2 and one" were released as ebooks by Literary Road. Because tanka poetry is an integral part of my poetography collections, I want to bring to the attention of all MET readers. They can find the books at literaryroad.com.

Thank you,
Ron Zheng"

I found the books online at
http://literaryroad.com/catalog.php?Genre_type=shorts

DMG

3LIGHTS Gallery of Haiku & Tanka welcomes M. Kei & Roberta Beary

DMG — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:45:38 GMT

3LIGHTS Gallery of Haiku & Tanka welcomes M. Kei & Roberta Beary www.threelightsgallery.com

This summer, 3LIGHTS Gallery is delighted to present two solo exhibitions from two of the finest exponents of haiku and tanka: M. Kei and Roberta Beary. See below for press releases for both shows. Please feel free to promote these exhibitions using the information below.
- - -

M. Kei : Love Letters : Homoerotic Tanka of Love & Friendship
3LIGHTS Gallery, July 1st - September 31st 2008
www.threelightsgallery.com

One of tanka's most distinctive and passionate of voices makes his return to 3LIGHTS this Summer with an exhibition of homoerotic tanka of love and friendship. Although many would associate M. Kei's poetry with images of the ocean, the coast and his native Chesapeake Bay, this latest exhibition from the editor of such publications as Atlas Poetica, Fire Pearls and author of Heron Sea and Slow Motion, homes in on tanka of a more personal nature. We are proud to present this exhibition and delighted to welcome back a good friend of the Gallery.
- - -

Roberta Beary : the words i meant to say
3LIGHTS Gallery, July 1st - September 31st 2008
www.threelightsgallery.com

Her recent collection, The Unworn Necklace, has earned Roberta Beary a place in haiku history, as it was short-listed for the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Prize – an astounding recognition for a collection of haiku. And the honour was wholly justified. Roberta Beary writes exquisite haiku that resonates with anyone who encounters it. We’re extremely fortunate to welcome Roberta to 3LIGHTS this summer for an exhibition of her stunning work.
- - -

3LIGHTS is now accepting submissions of haiku, senryu and tanka for its Autumn 2008 exhibition, Way Back Home. For details of this exciting show, please visit: www.threelightsgallery.com/submissions.

Many thanks,
Liam Wilkinson
3LIGHTS Gallery www.threelightsgallery.com
3LIGHTS Gallery is an online gallery of haiku and tanka submitted by new and established writers.
It is edited and curated by Liam & Diane Wilkinson and is based in the North of England.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL EROTIC TANKA CONTEST - revision

DMG — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:58:21 GMT

FIRST INTERNATIONAL EROTIC TANKA CONTEST
Deadline Postmark: Dec. 31st 2008

Eligibility: Open to everyone MUST BE AT LEAST 21 YEARS OLD TO ENTER

Subject matter: Erotic, sensual/physical tanka. Tanka that expresses love in all its manifestations. Please NO pornography!!

Prizes: First Place $100 Second Place $50 and Third Place $25
Prize monies maybe reduced if there are insufficient funds due to number of entries.

Entry Fee: $1 per tanka No limit on number of tanka submitted.
Checks, money orders, made payable to Pamela A. Babusci, or cash.
Foreign entries CASH ONLY, U.S. MONIES.

Rules: Submit tanka on 3x5 index cards. One card with just the tanka on it and the second card with your tanka and your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address on the front upper left of the card. Entries MUST be typewritten or printed legibly. Entries that cannot be read be will destroyed. Enclose an SASE, with sufficient postage (or 2 IRCs for international entries) if you desire contest results. ONLY unpublished tanka will be accepted. NO tanka that is being considered for publication or entered into tanka contests elsewhere. NO tanka that has been published on-line or in on-line tanka workshops should be entered. TANKA IN ENGLISH ONLY.

Judge: Pamela A. Babusci, international award-winning tanka poet.

Note: The contest will be judged blindly. Karen Shiffler will receive all entries and send ONLY the blind entries to the judge.

Send entries to: First International Erotic Tanka Contest, Karen Shiffler, 1464 Lake Road Webster, NY 14580 USA.

Questions: E-mail moongate44@gmail.com; subject line: Questions: Erotic Tanka Contest.

An Unknown Road, Haiku by Adelaide B. Shaw Published by Modern English Tanka Press

DMG — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:40:51 GMT

An Unknown Road, Haiku by Adelaide B. Shaw Published by Modern English Tanka Press

An Unknown Road, the debut collection of haiku by Adelaide B. Shaw, offers readers “a different treat for every moment” says an’ya, editor of Moonset Literary Newspaper. Ray Rasmussen, managing editor of Contemporary Haibun Online, says, “A welcome aspect of reading a collection of haiku by a single writer is that it's like being taken on a walk in the writer's neighborhood. Adelaide Shaw's collection takes us on the best kind of walk—small things become visible and remind us of our own meanders.” An outstanding first collection of haiku—don’t miss it!

Baltimore, Maryland–May 31, 2008–An Unknown Road, the first collection of haiku by Adelaide B. Shaw, has been published in trade paperback by Modern English Tanka Press. All who love haiku will want to read, and re-read, this outstanding debut collection from the accomplished haiku poet, Adelaide B. Shaw.

About Author:

Adelaide B. Shaw was born in New Haven, Connecticut. While in high school, her family moved to Los Angeles, California. In 1971 she and her husband and three children moved to a small village near Geneva, Switzerland. Returning to the United States in 1976 the family settled in Scarsdale, New York, a suburb near New York City. Adelaide has been an elementary school teacher, a principal’s assistant and a legal assistant before her retirement in 1997. She began writing haiku in the early 1970’s and has won several awards. Her haiku have appeared in numerous journals in the United States and abroad, in print and on-line. In addition to haiku, Adelaide writes tanka, haibun and short fiction. She and her husband currently live in the small rural community of Millbrook, New York.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact Adelaide B. Shaw by e-mail at adelaidebshaw (at) optonline (dot) net. Publisher information at: www.modernenglishtankapress.com.

This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from major booksellers; or by order from the publisher. Complete information and mail order form are available online at www.modernenglishtankapress.com. Price: $11.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-9817691-0-3. Trade paperback. 68 pages, 6.00" x 9.00", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.

About Modern English Tanka Press:

Modern English Tanka Press is an independent equity publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing books and periodicals of lasting literary value. A family business, we treat our customers and partners in publishing like family. Our publications are produced using modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. We publish tanka, haiku, and other fine poetry. Our special mission is to promote the tanka form of poetry, to educate newcomers to tanka about this most ancient poetic form, and to work for wider publication of tanka in both specialty and mainstream poetry venues. To those ends, we publish the journals “Modern English Tanka,” “Atlas Poetica,” “Modern Haiga,” and special edition books of tanka, haiku, and other fine verse. We operate www.TankaCentral.com, the internet megasite for tanka, with its popular “Tanka News” blog, and the poetry web hub, www.ShortVerse.com.

Contact:

Denis M. Garrison, owner
Modern English Tanka Press
443-802-1249
Email to dmg (at) themetpress (dot) com.
www.modernenglishtankapress.com www.modernenglishtanka.com www.atlaspoetica.com
www.shortverse.com www.tankacentral.com www.tankanews.com www.modernhaiga.com

2 MET Press books listed as Best Books for Summer Reading by The Montserrat Review

DMG — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:31:24 GMT

Two books published in the last year by Modern English Tanka Press, Alexis Rotella's tanka collection LIP PRINTS and Denis Garrison's collection of formal and free verse SAILOR IN THE RAIN AND OTHER POEMS have been listed in the "Best Books for Summer Reading, 2008" by Book Review Editor Grace Cavalieri in The Montserrat Review.
http://www.themontserratreview.com/BestoSummer2008.html

Lip Prints Tanka and Other Short Poems 1979–2007 by Alexis Rotella
Price: $21.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-6501-1. Trade paperback. 160 pages.
Price: $35.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-6502-8. Hardcover with dust jacket. 160 pages.
“Lip Prints by Alexis Rotella is her most beautifully crafted and imagistic book to date.” —Maria Mazziotti Gillan, editor of Paterson Literary Review and author of Italian Women in Black Dresses (Guernica Editions)
“Alexis Rotella has been writing free-form tanka with a lyrical, confessional voice exploring a wide range of emotions, feelings and insights. Her tanka, though firmly grounded in the American landscape of experiences, follow the ‘no subject off limits’ approach championed by the famous Modernist Japanese tanka poets, Akiko and Hiroshi Yosano (Tekkan). Alexis has the ability to capture a relationship in a phrase and deepen the moment of insightful feeling with surprising attention to details that tell us ‘the rest of the story.’ Her new collection, Lip Prints, is an opportunity for tanka readers to enjoy a rich body of work drawn from over thirty years of being a very alive writer.” —Randy Brooks, Editor Mayfly Magazine, Professor of English, Millikin University

Sailor in the Rain and Other Poems by Denis M. Garrison
Price: $19.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-8555-2. Trade paperback. 136 pages.
Price: $37.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-8497-5. Hardcover with dust jacket. 136 pages.
“Contained in Sailor in the Rain are some of the best poems of an American original, Denis M. Garrison. . . . Garrison’s sense of place and region, and his consciousness and reckoning of good and evil, order and chaos, truth and deceit, are all essential to his character as a poet, and that character relates his work to a diverse group of poets who span several centuries and have similar interests and thematic pre-occupations. His ‘Confessio’ might have been written by John Donne, as part of that poet’s series of ‘Holy Sonnets.’ Garrison’s haunted and haunting landscapes relate to similar metaphysical elements found in the earliest American poets and prose masters: Edward Taylor and Philip Freneau, Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Garrison’s concerns with symbolic argument and imagery (including the ambiguous and macabre) find their precursors in Edgar Alan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Stéphane Mallarmé —the latter, also, for a shared fascination for the interplay and revelations of style and content that a poet may achieve when pursuing the essence of invented, perfect poetic forms.” —Michael McClintock, in his Preface to Sailor in the Rain and Other Poems.

Grace Cavalieri has authored 14 books and 20 produced plays. She was a founder of radio station WPFW-FM in Washington D.C. Her program " The Poet and the Poem" has been on public radio for 30 years without interruption, now from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite. She has founded two poetry presses in Washington DC.

Worth noting: Both books have cover art by Karen McClintock of Fresno, California.

It is very gratifying to have a tanka collection, in particular, on the same list with poets like Charles Simic, Mark Doty, and Rod Jellema.

Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by M. Kei Published by Modern English Tanka Press

DMG — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:24:12 GMT

Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by M. Kei Published by Modern English Tanka Press

“Slow Motion: The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack” by M. Kei is a break-through collection of waterman poetry from the Chesapeake Bay by a poet who actually knows what he is talking about. M. Kei crews on the title boat, the Skipjack Martha Lewis. Kirsty Karkow, prize-winning poet and author of “water poems” and “shorelines,” says: “A Skipjack is a historic vessel where form follows function with a rough beauty. These characteristics are apparent in the sensitive, poetic voyages of an aging boat and the men who work her sails. This history and trip log is sure to delight any sailor or lover of the Chesapeake Bay . . . and of poetry.”

Baltimore, Maryland–May 27, 2008–Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack by M. Kei has been published in trade paperback by Modern English Tanka Press, Baltimore, Maryland. This break-through collection of waterman poetry from the Chesapeake Bay, by a poet who actually knows what he is talking about, is sure to delight any sailor or lover of the Chesapeake Bay and of poetry. The poet M. Kei crews on the title boat, the Skipjack Martha Lewis, out of Havre de Grace, Maryland. The short lyric forms used in Slow Motion are perfect vehicles for the laconic voice of the waterman. Kei has captured a bit of Chesapeake magic in a bottle and all who love the Bay, boating, and poetry, are a little richer for it.

"Kei, in his Slow Motion: The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack, has made these poems on the Chesapeake Bay with its sailboats and workmen and beauty into a tour de force. Having read hundreds and hundreds of modern haiku, I find that Kei's, along with his many tanka, communicate his joy in the beauty of sky and wave and sea and work. There is a sustaining harmony in the collection, at times earthy, at times transcendental, at times Whitmanesque. In this journey of log poetry, along with commentary and notes, Kei has extended the range of our poetic world." –Sanford Goldstein, co-translator of Midaregami, Tangled Hair

About Author:

M. Kei crews aboard a skipjack, a traditional wooden sailboat used to fish for oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. He is the author of Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, and the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, Fire Pearls: Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart. Kei edits the biannual tanka journal, Atlas Poetica, which is dedicated to poetry of place. His latest project is Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008, of which he serves as founder and editor-in-chief. He has published more than 800 poems and scholarly articles in five languages and ten countries. He also compiles the Bibliography of English-Language Tanka.

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview with the author, contact: M. Kei by e-mail at kujaku (at) verizon (dot) net. Publisher information at: www.modernenglishtankapress.com.

This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from major booksellers; or by order from the publisher. Complete information and mail order form are available online at www.modernenglishtankapress.com. Price: $16.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6152-1265-4. Trade paperback. 164 pages, 6.00" x 9.00", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.

About Modern English Tanka Press:

Contact:

Magnapoets call for submissions of tanka and haiku

DMG — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:20:24 GMT

Magnapoets Print, a bi-annual print journal of poetry in all forms, is open for submissions in the haiku and tanka categories. Guidelines: Send up to ten previouly unpublished poems with the subject, "Magnapoets Submission". Payment: 1 contributor's copy of the magazine. Feel free to pass this message on.

Magnapoets magnapoets@gmail.com

Hard cover of ASH MOON ANTHOLOGY back on sale

DMG — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:29:02 GMT

The hard cover (with dust jacket) edition of Ash Moon Anthology, with a minor correction, is back on sale at MET Press' websites at www.modernenglishtankapress.com and http://stores.lulu.com/modernenglishtanka .

Both editions have now been corrected.

best wishes,
Denis Garrison
Modern English Tanka Press

The Saigyo Awards for Tanka 2008

DMG — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:30:17 GMT

The Saigyo Awards for Tanka 2008

Deadline: In hand August 1, 2008

Prizes: First Prize: $100; Second Prize: $50; Third Prize: $25. Winners living outside the US will receive subscriptions to tanka journals in place of cash prizes.

Eligibility: Open to everyone.

Entry Fee: None.

Rules: All tanka must be the entrant's original, unpublished work, and not under consideration by any publication or other contest.

Submissions: Up to 10 tanka in English, typed (or printed legibly) on one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. Submit 2 copies. Provide name, address and pen name, if you use one, in upper left corner of one copy only.

Correspondence: Send business size SASE (outside US, SAE and 1 IRC) for notification of results. No entries will be returned.

Mail entries to: Carolyn Thomas, 7866 Hogan Circle, Hemet, CA 92545 USA.

Tanka Society of America 2008 International Tanka Competition — Call for Submission

DMG — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:27:15 GMT

Tanka Society of America 2008 International Tanka Competition — Call for Submission

Deadline: In hand, May 10th, 2008.

Eligibility: Open to all, members and non-members alike, except TSA officers and judges.

Regulations: Any number of tanka may be submitted.

Entries: Must be original, in English, unpublished, and not submitted for publication or to any other contest.

Entry Fee $1.00 per tanka, U.S. funds only. Please make checks/money orders payable to the "Tanka Society of America."

Submissions: Submit each tanka on three separate 3 x 5 inch cards, two with the tanka only (for anonymous judging), the third with the tanka and the author's name and address in the upper left-hand corner. Type or print neatly please. Submit entries and fees to: Carole MacRury, 1636 Edwards Drive, Point Roberts, WA 98281.

Awards: First prize: $100; Second Prize: $50; Third Prize: $25. Amount of prizes may be reduced if an insufficient number of entries are received. Winning poems will be published in Ribbons, the TSA journal.

Adjudication: The name(s) of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

Correspondence: Unfortunately, entries cannot be returned. Please send a business size SASE for answers to queries or for a list of winning entries. For foreign entries, send a SAE and US $1 cash.

Make checks/money orders payable to the "Tanka Society of America" and mail to Carole MacRury, 1636 Edwards Drive, Point Roberts, WA 98281.