Tomislav Maretić - Three Questions

Tomislav Maretić lives in Zagreb with his wife Ana and four children. He has written haiku for the past 30 years. They have been nationally and internationally published in a number of haiku journals, magazines, anthologies and almanacs, as well as awarded in many international haiku competitions.

Poetry Collections:
The Boat in the Reeds (haiku, 1990)
Alluvium (free verse, 2002)
Butterfly Over the Open Sea (haiku, 2011)

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku because it is the world's shortest poetry form and because I don't have much time for longer poetry. In addition, I find haiku to almost not be poetry at all, but instead touching of reality and poetry in reality. What I like with haiku is that is is poetry in Nature, and not in words.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I'm open to all poetry forms, and I generally and particularly like various styles of imagistic poetry, either rhymed or free verse, as well as poetry by Croatian poets:  A.B. Šimić, Tin Ujević, Viktor Vida and Danijel Dragojević.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)



a child shakes off
the first snow from the swing –
quiet morning    

 (Ito en, 1991)


guests are coming –
are the petals to be swept
away from the paths?

(Sakura Award, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, 2006)


hot tea-pot
on the garden table –
camellias in haze        

(Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards, runner-up, 2011)

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If you are enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haibun, haiku or tanka - to the three little questions that Tomislav answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Saturday updates

David Harris will read and discuss selections from Sea Trails by Pris Campbell during the live broadcast of Difficult Listening: the Poetry Show on Sunday, January 29, 2012 from 10:00 til noon Central time.  The program can be heard on 107.1 LPFM in the Nashville area, and via the website www.radiofreenashville.org.  Live video (and an archive) of the second hour, which includes poetry segments, should be accessible at http://tinyurl.com/24adsp9. or http://www.ustream.tv/discovery/recorded/all?broadcast=4654694

Here is a YouTube video of Pris reading from Sea Trails.

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Richard Krawiec sent this:

World Poetry Day is having a series of events, the first being Feb. 29. I have been asked to co-ordinate something for NC. Founded in Medellin, Columbia, this organization comprises poets and poetry organizations in 131 countries. 210 poetic organizations, including 114 international poetry festivals, and 1,200 poets.

The plan here is easy to implement, can involve limitless number of poets and on-poets, and maximizes bringing poetry to the public.

It's this simple. Select a poem to read, one of yours, or one by some other poet, that in some way touches on the theme of inclusion. At 7am and/or 7pm wherever you happen to be, whatever you happen to be doing, stop what you're doing and read the poem.

After that it's up to you. You can simply put the poem away and continue what you're doing, or engage those around you - at the grocery store, in school, on the bus, talking on the phone, etc. - in a discussion of the poem and why you read it.

I need to collect names of those who wish to participate. So if you want to do this email me at rkwriter@gmail.com Put FEB 29 in the subject line. Thanks.
--
Check out my websites!

http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html

http://www.rkeditor.com/

http://jacarpress.com/index.html

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The new issue of Lynx is online and ready for viewing at:

http://www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/271hmpg.html

Also available at the AHA Poetry web site is the Bare Bones School of Haiku, 14 lessons by Jane Reichhold on how to write haiku.

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Yuki Teikei Haiku Society and Haiku Poets of Northern California will host Fifth Haiku Pacific Rim Conference (HPR) at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, CA.

Dr. Akito Arima, will be a keynote speaker.

I attach HPR flier. Thanks to generousity of Poetry Center San Jose, donation is tax deductable.

As you can read in the attachment and HPR website (http://haikupacificrim2012.wordpress.com), Dr. Arima is well-known physicist and former Minister of Education in Japan, too.    Since he is fluent in English (he taught physicics at State Univ. of New York at Stony Brook), this could be the once-in-lifetime event for many English-language haiku poets.

Also, if you know a corporation which can be HPR corporate sponsor, please let me know

1) name of the company
2) person in charge and hie/her title
3) postal address

HPR 2012 Committee prepared a separate letter for corporate donors.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

If you would like to know more about the event, please contact me.

Best regards,

Fay Aoyagi
faycom@earthlink.net
   or
fayaoyagi@gmail.com  

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Scott Owens sent this:

Here is a flier for the entire 2012 Poetry Hickory schedule.  It should be a great year!  Help spread the news by posting this online or out in the real world wherever it might be seen and appreciated.

Hope to see you at every reading.

Thanks

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Hello All,

This is to remind you that the deadline for submitting your news for the spring issue of Ripples is February 1.  Thank you to the many of you who have already sent things to me.

As always, I hope the regional news updates will focus on the haiku-related events in your area. This is a great way for poets in other regions to get ideas for their haiku gatherings.  High quality photographs are also welcome.  Please include a note identifying those in the picture as well as the name of the photographer.

Other items to send to Ripples include contest submission guidelines, full contest results, conference announcements, new books and other publications, in memoriam notes, and any other news significant to HSA members.

Thank you!

Susan Antolin
Editor, Ripples: Haiku Society of America Newsletter

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Robert Lee Brewer (editor of Writer's Digest) recently featured Scott Owens on his My Name Is Not Bob blog. Here is the link:

http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com/2012/01/bending-rules-or-poet-has-to-be-poet.html

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Snapshot Press  sent this:

This is the final call for entries to The Haiku Calendar Competition 2012.

Prizes totaling US$600 are on offer, and 52 haiku will be selected for inclusion in The Haiku Calendar 2013.

Entries may be sent by email or post, and must be emailed or postmarked by Tuesday January 31. Previously published haiku are eligible for entry.

Please see the entry guidelines for details:

http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/entry_guidelines.htm

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And finally, Susan Nelson Myers and I had the pleasure of judging a Poetry Slam in Winston-Salem last Thursday night. I strongly encourage Tobacco Road readers to attend a slam in your area. The creative energy at these readings is inspiring!

Here is a picture of Susan and me with slam master and organizer, Bob Moyer (on the right).

Here is a link to the Piedmont Slam web site.

And here is Taylor Mali reciting one of his poems at a slam event:

Friday updates

A new issue of Prune Juice has been released:Prune Juice Issue 7 Winter 2012

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Scott Owens sent this:

POETRY COUNCIL ANNOUNCES ANNUAL WINNERS

The Poetry Council of NC, a self-supporting, all-volunteer nonprofit organization founded in 1949 to foster a deeper appreciation of poetry in the state, has announced the winners of its annual poetry contests.  Judges were permitted to select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners as well as up to 3 honorable mentions in each contest category, with the exception of the book contest which has no 3rd place winner.  Some judges elected to name fewer winners.

All winners will receive their awards, including cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, at Poetry Day to be held at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory on April 14.  Winning poems will also be published in the Council’s annual awards anthology, Bay Leaves, and winning poets will be invited to read their poems at Poetry Day.  An additional category for Performance Poetry is judged and awarded at Poetry Day.  Information on any of the contests, Poetry Day, and the Poetry Council is available at www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

The complete list of category winners and judges is as follows:

Oscar Arnold Young (book contest):
JUDGE: Paul Hostovsky, Medfield, MA & Ron Moran, Simpsonville, SC
  1st      The Swing Girl by Katherine Soniat, Asheville, NC
  2nd     Lie Down with Me by Julie Suk, Charlotte, NC
  HM    Rendering the Bones by Susan M. Lefler, Brevard, NC
  HM    An Innocent in the House of the Dead by Joanna Catherine Scott, Chapel
            Hill, NC

Gladys Owings Hughes Heritage (free verse):
JUDGE: Darnell Arnoult, Harrogate, TN
  1st      “Babies Hurtling Several Stories” by Ross White, Durham, NC
  2nd      “Daddy Imagines a Good Death” by JS Absher, Raleigh, NC
  3rd      “The Museum of Broken Things” by Jane Shlensky, Bahama, NC

Charles Shull (traditional poetry):
JUDGE: Paul Bone, Evansville, IN
  1st      “Facts about Early America” by Ross White, Durham, NC (rhyming couplets)
  2nd      “Basic Bad Day” by Peg Russell, Murphy, NC (terza rima)
  3rd      “Featured Reader” by Alice Osborn, Raleigh, NC (sestina)
  HM    “On a Recent Engagement” by Michael A. Moreno, Rockville, MD (sonnet)
  HM    “Water the Lover” by Ellen Summers, Greensboro, NC (sonnet)

James Larkin Pearson (free verse):
JUDGE: Felicia Mitchell, Emory, VA
  1st      “Address to Monarchs” by Ross White, Durham, NC
  2nd      “My Mother’s Lake” by Ann Campanella, Huntersville, NC
  3rd      “What Burns for Light” by Lisa Zerkle, Charlotte, NC
  HM    “Circumventing the Circumference” by Terry Collins, Mount Airy, NC
  HM    “Things Fall Out of My Father” by Robert Moyer, Winston Salem, NC
  HM    “The Lesbians Next Door” by Alice Osborn, Raleigh, NC

Ellen Johnston-Hale (humorous verse):
JUDGE: Gloria Alden, Southington, OH
  1st      “Where Time Does Not Fly” by Susan Spalt, Carrboro, NC
  2nd      “The Voice” by Barbara Brooks, Hillsborough, NC
  3rd      “Arctic” by Lisa Zerkle, Charlotte, NC
  HM    “Black Friday” by Doris Dix Caruso, Burlington, NC
  HM    “Patience” by Jane Shlensky, Bahama, NC
  HM    “I Think They Got It!” by Janet Ireland Trail, Greensboro, NC

Charlotte Young (elementary school):
JUDGE: David Roderick, Greensboro, NC
  1st      “Jupiter” by Sydney Campanella (home-schooled), Huntersville, NC
  2nd      “Light Saves Us” by Paige Morrison (North Forest Pines Elem.), Wake Forest, NC
  3rd      “Blue” by Joellen Callahan (North Forest Pines Elem.), Wake Forest, NC
  HM    “Doves” by Sonja Woolley (Episcopal Day School), Southern Pines, NC
  HM    “Nature Walk” by Lilly Corcoran (Episcopal Day School), Southern Pines, NC

Carol Bessent Hayman (middle school):
JUDGE: David Roderick, Greensboro, NC
  1st      “The Pledge of Sausage” by Devon Stocks (Clarkton School of Discovery), Clarkton, NC
  2nd      “Pumpkin Patch” by Kenneth More [sp?] (Clarkton School of Discovery), Clarkton, NC

Sam Ragan North Carolina Connection (high school):
JUDGE: Natasha Trethewey, Decatur, GA
  1st      "Lesson of the Lark" by Maggie Apple of North Guilford High School
  2nd      Jennifer Comerford of North Guilford High School

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Djurdja Vukelic-Rozic sent this link:

2nd Vladimir Devide Haiku Award - Open Haiku Competition

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Sasa Vazic sent this link to the Autumn/Winter issue of Simply Haiku:

http://simplyhaiku.theartofhaiku.com/autumnwinter-2011.html

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Here is a review of Ed Baker's Stone Girl E-pic.

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Gabriel Rosenstock sent this:

Where Light Begins Haiku, the English-language haiku of Gabriel Rosenstock. This volume also
contains the ground-breaking essay, The Universal Spirit of Issa.

May be downloaded freely by your subscribers.

Best,

Gabriel

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Susan Antolin sent this:

The Haiku Poets of Northern California have extended the deadline for the San Francisco International Rengay Contest to January 31, 2012.  There is still time to find a partner (or two!) and write some rengay before the deadline.  We look forward to receiving your entries!  The submission guidelines are as follows:

Rengay Submission Guidelines

All rengay must be titled. For two people (Poet A and Poet B) follow this linked format: 3 lines/Poet A, 2 lines/Poet B, 3/A, 3/B, 2/A, 3/B. For three poets (A, B, and C) the format is: 3 lines/A, 2 lines/B, 3 lines/C, 2/A, 3/B, 2/C. Type or print each rengay on three letter-size sheets. Include full authorship information, stanza by stanza, as well as all poets' names, addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses (optional) on one copy only. On the other two copies, mark stanzas with letters only (poet A, poet B, poet C) to indicate the sequence of authorship. Send rengay submissions to HPNC, c/o Fay Aoyagi, 930 Pine St. #105, San Francisco CA 94108.

The 2011 rengay judge is Renee Owen.

Entry Fee: $5 per rengay

Make checks or money orders payable in U.S. dollars to "Haiku Poets of Northern California (HPNC)." Cash (in U.S. currency) is OK. Enclose a business-size SASE (U.S. first class postage or an IRC) for notification of contest winners. No entries will be returned, with the exception of late submissions, or those received without payment. These will be returned using your SASE; without an SASE these entries will be discarded.

Thank you for participating in this year's contest.

If you have any questions, please contact Fay Aoyagi by e-mail (fayaoyagi@gmail.com)

http://www.hpnc.org

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this:

Haikuists:

Just a reminder for those of you who are members: Our "Ripples" newsletter deadline is Feb. 1. If you have published haiku books, won awards, have given haiku lectures, etc., please let Editor Susan Antolin know, susantolin@gmail.com

Also, some of you have already RSVPed for the Saturday, Feb. 11 haiku meeting from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winnetka (IL) Public Library, 768 Oak St., Winnetka. You might get inspired to  write some winter haiku for the meeting by checking out Michael Dylan Welch's website at
 http://sites.google.com/site/graceguts/haiku-and-senryu/traces-of-snow.

Also, if you are interested, there is National Haiku Writing Month. See http://sites.google.com/site/nahaiwrimo/home. (Most action takes place on an associated Facebook site -- currently with more than 600 active monthly users).

Charlotte Digregorio

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Ed Baker sent this:

a set of new photos  -first set of thumb-nails at bottom - on my web-site
if you click the image  it enlarges!

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/photos_2011/dsc_0641.jpg
the new photos at bottom, here:

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/

here is that huge (4 ' x 8 ')  image of "She w Snake"
which is new version of what is on cover of 'She Intrudes':

http://edbaker.maikosoft.com/photos_2011/dsc_0633.jpg

there are many more pieces photographed in 3 other rooms not included here.

anyway

sure is a bonus   time-wise & intrusion-wise cutting way back on reading internet "stuff"
& only replying to letters/emails....& reading books .... again.

cheers, Ed

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Another message from Scott Owens:

Clayton Joe Young and I have been collaborating on a series of photos and poems which will be on exhibit at the Bethlehem Branch of the Alexander County Library throughout February and March (reception from 5:30 - 7:00 on Feb 2) as part of "The Bethlehem Branch Library Exhibiting Artists Series", sponsored by the Bethlehem Friends of the Library and the Bethlehem Community Development Association.

He has also produced a book featuring the work of that collaboration. And it's beautiful -- thanks in large part to Joe's photos. It is 62 pages long and includes 29 of Joe's photos and 25 of my poems (13 of which are brand spanking new). It is called Country Roads: Travels Through Rural North Carolina. It would make a great gift or collectors' item. And is just a wonderful thing to look at. I, for one, can't stop staring at some of these photos.

It is also expensive (at least by my "poor poet's" standards). Which is why I've only ordered 10 paperbacks and 10 hardcovers to sell. I did get Joe to sign each copy, and I've signed them as well. If you'd like one, I would be glad to mail it out to you (my postage is a lot cheaper than the press's, and the ones you could get from them wouldn't be signed).

Paperbacks are $29.95; Hardcovers are $41.95. Add $4 for shipping and handling. Call me at 828-234-4266 to work out details, or mail a check to Scott Owens, 838 4th Ave. Dr. NW, Hickory, NC 28601, or I can give you paypal info if you want to go that route.

Here is a sample poem just to whet your appetite:

Without Affectation

What would you call it,
this color of the natural world,
brown leaves and dirt,
khaki-almost-blonde straw,
gray trunks of trees,
occasional green of moss and cedar,
all blended under winter's fast-moving,
blue-gray sky --
a muted impressionism --
charcoal, sepia, ochre,
memory, regret, contemplation --
a color your eyes try to filter out.


Or, you can preview the entire book at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2850653.
I hope to see you at the reception, and let me know if I can send you a book beforehand.

Scott Owens
www.scottowenspoet.com
www.scottowensmusings.blogspot.com
www.poetryhickory.com
www.wildgoosepoetryreview.com
www.234journal.com
www.poetrycouncilofnc.wordpress.com

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Penny Harter's poem "Because a Volcano Has Erupted in Japan" appears in the just released anthology *Sunrise from Blue Thunder: Japan, Earthquake-Tsunami, March 2011" (c) Pirene's Fountain, 2011. Edited by Ami Kaye.The poems in this anthology honor the people of Japan as they try to rebuild their lives after these two disasters.

Her sonnet "Summer Ice" appears in the new anthology, *The Best of The Barefoot Muse," (c) 2011 Barefoot Muse Press. Edited by Anna M. Evans.

And four of her haiku and a haiku sequence appear in Aubrie Cox's blog anthology *The Language of Dragons*.
http://yaywords.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/the_language_of_dragons.pdf

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And finally, my sincerest thanks to all who have started visiting my other blog, The Frugal Poet. Contact me if you have a poem and recipe to share.

Bouwe Brouwer - Three Questions

Bouwe Brouwer was born raised and is still living on reclaimed land in a small town in the Netherlands. He has been writing haiku since August 2008. Besides publications in magazines such as Whirligig, Simply Haiku, Shamrock, Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Chrysanthemum, Blithe Spirit and Vuursteen he also enjoys sharing his haiku by means of small handmade haiku books. Trained as an illustrator/designer he later switched to working as a teacher at a primary school, which he still enjoys very much every day. At the end of this year his first solo book of haiku and haibun will be published by Max Verhart’s small press 't Schrijverke under the title: Messages from the past.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

From an early age on I’ve always been interested in arts and creativity. So after high school I went to study fine arts and was trained as an illustrator/designer. But somehow painting, drawing and photography never seemed sufficient enough to express what I wanted to express. In 2008 I discovered haiku through Jack Kerouac’s writing and everything fell into place. Haiku just seems to suit me. I find haiku very challenging. Although restricted by limited space, the possibilities of haiku seem infinite. Not only concerning subject matter but also technique.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I still enjoy reading different kinds of poetry and actually started reading poetry when I was a teenager. But I guess the biggest influence on my writing is music. The songs of musicians like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone still influence me to this very day. Besides haiku I enjoy writing rengay. I’ve been writing rengay on and off for almost two years now. Mostly with Marleen Hulst, an excellent Dutch writer. And I started writing haibun at the beginning of 2011. This opened a whole new range of possibilities for me and I find it a great adventure.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)

It’s hard to pick a top three, so I’ll chose three haiku that fit the season.

Christmas tree -
every year a little higher
her paper angel

Caribbean Kigo Kukai #30 - 1st place
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011


December fog . . .
taillights fade into
Christmas song

Simply Haiku January 2011
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011


dawn—
winter light slides into
my slippers

Polish International Haiku Contest - 3rd place. November 2011
Bouwe Brouwer: berichten uit het verleden / messages from te past. 't Schrijverke, Den Bosch (Netherlands) 2011

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haibun, haiku or tanka - to the three little questions that Bouwe answered. You must be a published poet to participate

Monday updates

Now out from Modern Haiku Press.

Haiku 21: an anthology of contemporary English-language haiku
edited by Lee Gurga & Scott Metz
with an introduction by the editors
Perfectbound, 205 pages: over 600 haiku by more than 200 poets
Modern Haiku Press, 2011 (Lincoln, IL)
ISBN: 978-0-974189-45-1
$20 + $3 (shipping) in U.S.; $20 + $6 (shipping) in Canada; $20 + $12 (shipping) all other countries
URL: http://www.modernhaiku.org/mhbooks/Haiku21.html

In forms ranging from monostich to multilayer to interlinear spaces, Haiku 21 reveals a shift in haiku writing in English today. Along with typically haikuesque sensibilities come fleeting remarks, cosmic wonders, whimsies, dissonances, gritty and elegant meldings with nature, veritable koans. An eye-opening collection. —Hiroaki Sato

This is the most important anthology of English-language haiku to be published in decades. If you are curious to discover how this briefest form of literature has evolved in the 21st century into a novel and potent contemporary poetics, open this book! —Richard Gilbert

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Here's a haiga video by Donna Beaver, Al Pizzarelli, and Anita Virgil:

 EPISODE 22: HAIGA GALLERY

Haiga Gallery from Haiku Chronicles on Vimeo.

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Aubrie Cox sent this:

Dear friends,

Although many of you have already gotten wind of it via Facebook, I wanted to send out a semi-sort-of-kind-of official notice that the dragon/water/fire poems are now online!

http://yaywords.wordpress.com/projects/the-language-of-dragons/

But more importantly, thank you again for sharing your works with me and everyone else. I hope all of you are blessed with a warm, pleasant, and fruitful year!

Cheers,
Aubrie

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Ray Rasmussen sent this:

Hi Curtis,

Please announce the new issue of CHO, just released. I think that you've already announced the December releases of Haibun Today, A Hundred Gourds and Notes from the Gean.

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/

And you may wish to consider announcing this haiku genre journal website. I just put together the list. I think that it's relatively complete, but there's also a spot for adding journals.

http://raysweb.net/haiku/pages/publicationvenues.html

Ray Rasmussen

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Dear Sketchbook readers and writers:

The Nov/Dec 31, 2011 Issue of Sketchbook is now on-line:
Sketchbook: Vol. 6-6: November/December 31, 2011

Please consider contributing to the Haiku and Haiga New Year’s Festival site.

The November/December 2011 issue of Sketchbook features Poetry and Art from 68 writers living in 18 countries.

The Sketchbook editors send New Year’s Greetings to each of you. Submissions are open for the January / February 2012 Issue. Read the complete submission guidelines.

Sketchbook editors: Karina Klesko and John Daleiden
kk / jd
Poetrywriting.org/Karina Klesko/Director
www.poetrywriting.org: Sketchbook
Karina Klesko, Senior Editor
John Daleiden, Editor/Webmaster

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Haiku and Tanka Harvest
Authored by Victor P Gendrano

Selected Haiku and Tanka poems, 2006-2011

A selection of over 200 haiku and tanka poems previously published in various online and print journals as well as book anthologies, written from 2006-2011.

Order Haiku and Tanka Harvest at the following URL:

https://www.createspace.com/3737478

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Penny Harter shared this interesting essay entitled More than the Birds, Bees, and Trees: A Closer Look at Writing Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Poets.org also has a Poetic Forms & Techniques page.

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Janak Sapkota sent this preview of his new book entitled Whisper of Pines.

Download the Whisper of Pines preview here.

Ramesh Anand - Three Questions

Ramesh Anand is a Senior R&D Engineer and a haiku poet based in Johor, Malaysia. His life experiences, as Haiku moments, have been published and forthcoming in World’s premier print journals and e-journals. He lives happily with his better half, Divya, and their best little half, Tanmayi. His complete publications can be accessed through his blog: http://ramesh-inflame.blogspot.com

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1) Why do you write haiku?

I write haiku to nourish my senses. I believe that it programs my subconscious mind to be absolutely focussed and positive in all the works I do. Now I am more efficient in my career, more affectionate with my family, more calm and peaceful, viewing nature and human objectively than before starting to write haiku. Importantly, I am living my life, moment by moment. Malaysia's abundance of nature is also playing a lively role in my haiku writing.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Presently, I write only haiku. I have interest to write tanka, in future. I love reading tanka works of Pamela A. Babusci and Kala Ramesh.

3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits)



spring’s end
my infant fingers
the fallen petal

Lyrical Passion Poetry E-Zine, 2011



winter deepens
... lungi shivering on
the beggar's face

Simply Haiku, Summer 2011, Vol. 9 No. 2



Autumn dawn --
mother serves white rice
on an almond leaf

Asahi Haikuist Network, 7th October 2011


I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Robert D. Wilson, Mrs Lorin Ford and Mr. Anatoly Kudryavitsky whom identified my talent in haiku, when I first submitted my works to them early this year, which has helped me to publish my works further.

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haibun, haiku or tanka - to the three little questions that Ramesh answered. You must be a published poet to participate

Thursday updates

Melissa Allen sent this:

It is my honor to announce the launch of Multiverses, a new online journal dedicated to publishing modern English haiku and related forms of Japanese poetry, as well as to make an initial call for submissions for our first issue (due out in Spring of 2012). From our editorial statement:

"Each moment of our lives is a haiku waiting to happen. The unique way in which we experience these moments creates an authentic and personal reality known only to ourselves—our own little universe, so to speak. Yet we are all part of the same sum. By sharing our individual experiences and observations, we gain perspective and insight into the world of others, therefore becoming better attuned and more intimate with our own. It is with this idea in mind that Multiverses happened into existence."

We are so excited and pleased to have an incredible team of editors, including:

Paul Smith, Tanka Editor
Melissa Allen, Haibun Editor
Alexis Rotella, Haiga Editor
Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Features Editor

Please feel free to share this post and spread the word about our launch. For more information about Multiverses, including details on submitting your work (deadline for our inaugural issue is February 15!), please visit www.multiversesjournal.com. We're all looking forward to reading your work!

John Hawk
Founder, Haiku Editor
Multiverses (www.multiversesjournal.com)

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Alexis Rotella sent this:

Attention Haiga Artists:

As haiga editor of the new journal Multiverses founded by poet John Hawk, I am asking you to illustrate this lovely haiku by Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu for Multiverses Journal:

first snow -
the child steps outside
in his velvet slippers

Any approach is acceptable and I look forward to seeing what your creative juices will bring to the occasion. Submit to MultiversesJournal@gmail.com

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Cathy Drinkwater Better sent this:

Aglow at Noon: Selected Haiku and Tanka, by Edith Bartholomeusz. Black Cat Press, Eldersburg, MD, USA. Illustrated by Cathy Drinkwater Better. Softcover; size, 5-½ in. x 5 in. (similar to quarto size), 122 pp; ISBN 978-0-9834197-1-6. $12.00, postage paid. Published November 2011. Available, signed, from the author; email frededith10@gmail.com; or write to 2713 W. Ashurst Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85045 USA.

This is the second compilation of haiku and tanka by widely published poet Edith Bartholomeusz. Includes are both previously published and new work as well as illustrations for a number of the poems by poet and haiga artist Cathy Drinkwater Better. A prologue by the poet offers an insight into her creative process.

“In Aglow at Noon, Edith Bartholomeusz has crafted a pastoral elegy of unusual form and power, dignity and grace, using the spare simplicities of haiku and tanka,” noted Michael McClintock, past president of the Tanka Society of America (2004–2010). “Each poem is but a transitory moment in a longer procession through time. In the whole of the vision that unfolds, we may sense the mysteries of life and death, as within the ordinary processes of nature we experience consolation and renewed conviction. Bartholomeusz's restraint is monumental, her destination profound,” he concluded.

Stanford M. Forrester, editor of bottle rockets: a collection of short verse, stated, “Edith Bartholomeusz is a traveled and seasoned poet. This is evident in Aglow at Noon which, simply stated, is a beautiful book. Highly recommended.”

---

Jessie Carty's new book of poems entitled An Amateur Marriage is available here. She writes:

Thank you so much to everyone who has already ordered my upcoming chapbook "An Amateur Marriage" from Finishing Line Press.

Some people have mentioned a reluctance to order online and/or to order without a guarantee of an autograph so I wanted to offer you guys one more chance to order from me directly!

I'm attaching an order form that you can email back to me or that you can print and mail back to me.

If you are emailing then pay me directly the $14 via paypal to this email address and send this form back so I know where to send the book when it is released in March as well as whether or not to sign it!

If you want to mail me a check (make it out to me) I'll put in a big order to Finishing Line and ship you the book myself in March.

I know not everyone wants to pre-order but your support really helps determine how many will be printed!!!

Hope everyone has a terrific holiday season :) I'll be taking pre-orders through 12-31-11 and Finishing Line will close out pre-orders on 1-4-12.

Best!!

-Jessie Carty

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Happy Holidays from Turtle Light Press!

Thank you for your support!

We just wanted to take a few moments to wish each of you a Happy Holiday and enjoyable New Year!

We have two incredible book projects this coming year: a new edition of one of this country's premier haiku poets, Nick Virgilio, who wrote about nature, life in Camden, N.J., and the loss of his brother Larry in the Vietnam war. It will be edited by haiku poet Raffael de Gruttola and is due out in the spring.

The second project is a limited edition of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai's work, entitled "The Amichai Windows," which will feature 18 poems in separate paper and glass editions. We are hoping to have a kickoff exhibition of the book at a leading museum or university library.

In February, we will announce the winner of our 2012 haiku chapbook competition. We received entries from New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Ethiopia, Canada, the U.S. and other countries, so stay tuned for a winner's announcement.

As a small token of our gratitude, we have placed all of our boxed note cards on sale at 30 percent off. Usually, a box of cards retails for $16 -- now, they're $10 each plus free shipping. The sale runs through January 1.

Again, thanks so much to each of you for your continued support and encouragement of our work -- not to mention your business!

Sincerely,

Rick Black
Turtle Light Press

---

From: The Sketchbook Editors: Karina Klesko and John Daleiden

Dear Curtis Dunlap,

Please post this invitation to a New Year's Haiku and Haiga Festival.

We invite haijin to participate in the Sketchbook New Year’s Festival Haiku: Please review this link for full details:
http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook6-5SepOct2011/0_Contents_Sketchbook_6-5_SepOct_2011_Announcement_New_Year_s_Haiku_Festival.htm
Haiku and / or Haiga may be sent at anytime after December 1, 2011. The Haiku and Haiga will be displayed after Midnight on December 30, 2011 at this link: Sketchbook New Year’s Haiku and Haiga Festival

http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook6-6NovDec2011/0_Contents_Sketchbook_6-6_NovDec_2011_New_Year_s_2011_Haiku_Festival.htm

Poetrywriting.org/Karina Klesko/Director
http://poetrywriting.org: Sketchbook
Karina Klesko, Senior Editor
John Daleiden, Editor/Webmaster
kk / jd

---

Scott Owens sent this:

The January 10 Poetry Hickory should kick off the year in memorable fashion.  Tamra (Tammy) Wilson will be back, reading fiction from her new book of short stories, Dining with Robert Redford.  And John Lane, author of 14 (or more) books including poetry, creative nonfiction, personal narrative, nature writing, and critical studies, will be reading from either (or both) his award winning new and selected poems collection called Abandoned Quarry or his new personal narrative, My Paddle to the Sea: Eleven Days on the Rivers of the Carolinas. Lane is co-founder of Hub City Press and Director of Wofford College's Goodall Environmental Studies Center.

As always, we'll begin at 4:00 with Writers' Night Out for anyone interested in meeting and talking with local writers of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; we'll have Open Mic at 5:30 (still two slots open -- Doug McHargue has one); and the featured writers will begin at 6:00.

Featured writers will have copies of their books for sale, and each purchase from the featured writers (or of the Best of Poetry Hickory anthology) earns you a free book from series sponsor Main Street Rag.  And of course, Taste Full Beans will have coffee, tea, cookies, brownies, sandwiches, salads, and much else for sale as well.

The flier for the reading is attached.  Please help spread the word by posting it online and in the non-virtual world.

---

Susan Nelson Myers and Charlotte Digregorio shared this Curbside Haiku link:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/curbside-haiku-sample.pdf

Donna Fleischer - Three Questions

Donna Fleischer, has authored three poetry chapbooks, Twinkle, Twinkle, a selection of haiku (Longhouse Publishers, 2010), indra’s net , a selection of haibun (bottle rockets press, 2003) and Intimate Boundaries, a collection of early open form poems (self-published, 1991).

Her poetry appears in literary periodicals in Japan, England, and the U. S., anthologies, and online at Back Room Live!, CT Environmental Headlines, Salamander Cove, and tinywords. She daily curates the blog word pond –http://donnafleischer.wordpress.com/ – with postings of and on poetry, music, visual arts, news stories and permaculture. She is assistant editor of the journal bottle rockets and bottle rockets press anthologies.

Useful Knowledge Press (New Haven, CT) will publish a limited edition of Donna’s haiku with wood block engravings by Allan Greenier in February 2012, entitled HAIKU.

---

1) Why do you write haibun?

I learned about the form from Bruce Ross’s excellent book, Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun. My next and immediate step was to experience the world’s first haibun, Narrow Road to the Interior, by Bashō. Well, I never looked back. The haibun form has become my principal companion on this journey in poetry. As with the haiku form, there are a healthy variety of interpretations on what constitutes a haibun. The French Surrealist writer and artist, André Breton, spoke of the point sublime, a writing site where unlike things meet one another, create instantaneous juxtapositions, which best of all engender some sort of pleasure, only then to careen out of focus and logic. For me, the haibun form is just such a site. I delight in where it takes me into discovery of interrelationships, sensual and abstract. It is an expansive, protean, hearty form that allows for the imagination to furrow the poetic field and be as experimental as one needs to be. For those interested in reading further, there’s a short essay I wrote, The American Haibun, online at Issa’s Untidy Hut – http://bit.ly/j7aYcG .

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haiku, renku, and shorter open organic forms

3) Of the many wonderful haibun you’ve written, what do you consider to be your top three?


bird without wing

all week long the bird was obedient to its caged routine; fed promptly at regularly measured intervals, even naps taken perfunctorily with cosmic discipline and good birdism. in this manner the bird did deliver song – an efficient ecstasy.

on weekends the bird was allowed to escape its cage. in moments of disturbed flurry – a dollhouse flight

tiny bell
by the mirror
rings again

Frogpond and indra’s net (bottle rockets press, 2003)

~  ~  ~

The Red Photogram

The unplanned for trip began as I stepped back from Ellen Carey’s red photogram; “The shape of grief is circular,” the book reviewer wrote of Forest Gander’s new novel; and I wonder that my avidity for procrastination takes the shape of walking in circles. I stand still before the red photogram for which I have no words, of relevance. But those red swirls, they are there, every day, and they make me smile

Especially there in the late winter bone-cleaving days when I begin to feel out my circle walks, looking out of windows, returning to a place only to leave. My own Greek chorus. First movements, away from a mother. Stepping back from a mirror, startled by the absence of something. Remembering and forgetting, until it becomes me. The it of absence already staged in the blood.

Burroughs called it “the soft typewriter of the womb” the place where we begin to make first words. Buffering ourselves from her overloud heartbeats, I suppose. The better words, says Rimbaud, are in the silence of color

shadows of geese
flickering ’cross tree trunks
quiet spring morning

So there it is, Art, the ultimate road trip, with rickshaw and naked feet and kasa strung under the chin while floats a pillow of consciousness on last night’s dream. A painter friend’s words in an e-mail, “ — the need to reject the written word/numbers (ego) from our thought process ... When it comes to art — I don't know anymore,” he says.

Fleeting perceptions, apperceptions. Glory of the everyday of ordinary things that stay as we pass by them ... Those classical Chinese poets, Wang Wei, Li Po, Han Shan, minimalist in style and so completely embodied in their endless leaving and returning. The circle.

The first time there is Loss it’s already too late — Loss circulating in endless loops. You look and wait, look and wait, for your love, your lost one, to return. The sound of your own blood in your ears when you are most alone. The sound of the earth all opened up and speaking, and the mourner, who listens; the underworld starlit darkness of the body emerging on the horizon of birth

fixing
Li Po’s gate
November wind

If only one could look inside this dark room of the body. See the quiet, orderly procession of blood. Contained. Purple. A royal life of its own. Hear the soft, murmuring canals bloom. Just stand in the sunlight and close your eyes. Those red swirls, they’ll make you smile.

[A photogram is a shadow image created when an object or objects are directly placed and moved on light sensitive paper while exposed to a light source. Using one of photography’s earliest processes, artist photographer, Ellen Carey, creates both subtle and bold abstractions with her conceptual approach to color and light in work that is striking in its immediacy and highly original and innovative in its use of color, scale, and Polaroid materials.]

~  ~  ~

Darwin's Urn

Trapped inside the daily noise of man’s machinery an atonal fugue without music of the spheres cyclical and blesséd, even when all machines are on off an irritating drone pervades this room without apology, this power grid. Human beings plug into it with their paycheck prongs. Vacuum pump fluctuates, fans oscillate, chase proceeds along X and Y axes on worm bores of forged steel. My heart, suspires. . . down around the corroded canyon of an old cast-iron drainage pipe surrounded by spilled photochemicals and rusting razor blades, who will believe it, a cricket sings. Aerosol spray can of ant and termite killer sadly within reach, I hurl it into the trash, smile calmly at the prescience of our possible common doom. The bug's little choir lifts me throughout the twelve hour shift in between volume spikes that drown out its tune when the wee peripatetic heartbeat resumes. Yet such miniature beauty making, I fear, will merely draw enough attention to be crushed or poisoned. Could cricket be enjoying its peculiar new digs? I flinch to wonder how we can escape, together, with Sartre and Disney breathing down my neck. Just the few steps through a door and onto sweet simple grasses outside...

right effort

cricket knows

does not stop its song

for long

---

If you are enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haibun, haiku or tanka - to the three questions that Donna answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Sunday updates

A new issue of Notes from the Gean (with a great new look) is online:

Dear Readers,

Notes from the Gean, volume 3, Issue 3 is now online.

You can view our new and exciting page turning “flip” format by clicking on the following link.

http://www.notesfromthegean.com/currentissue.html

There are full instructions on how to navigate the flip format on the Yudu, Carbon Neutral page.

Thank you and enjoy!

Colin Stewart Jones
Editor-in-Chief
Notes from the Gean

---

Penny Harter sent this:


Hi family and friends,

My haibun, "Moon-Seeking Soup" from my chapbook Recycling Starlight, appears on Jama Rattigan's blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup, posted today, December 10th, to accompany the December 2011 full moon.

http://jamarattigan.com/2011/12/09/friday-feast-moon-seeking-soup-by-penny-harter/.

I am blessed and honored, both by Jama's comments and by the responses of her readers, to whom I've replied both individually and in a post at the end (so far) of the comments.  And I encourage you all to try making the soup---it's really good.

You should also add parsnips and peeled / diced apple for sweetening. If you read through my responses to readers' responses, and then mine at the end (so far) of those, I mention that I left those ingredients out of the recipe in the poem.

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season so far, and as I said in my comment on Jama's blog, we all need to look for light as we approach the Solstice. I hope "Moon-Seeking Soup" helps you find the light in all you do, even the simple act of soup-making.

Love,
Penny

---

WHC NEWS
11 December 2011

Re: New Issue of World Haiku Review is now online: December 2011 Issue

The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce that the December 2011 Issue of World Haiku Review is now online. Click on: http://sites.google.com/site/worldhaikureview2/home

Rohini Gupta, our Technical Editor, is continuing her noble and arduous task of retrieving and rescuing poems, articles, treatises, reports, contributions etc. of the past World Haiku Review issues 2001 - 2007, which got tragically lost in mysterious circumstances. Her first effort is focused on saving, recovering and rescuing only. She will then gradually sort them out and give them shape. If you happen to come across any of these invaluable items of the past WHR issues, by all means please let us know.

The following poets, please take a look at this new issue to find your poems among the best 10s:
aju mukhopadhyay, Susan Constable, Carmel Lively Westerman, Patricia Prime, Priscila H. Lignori, Marie Shimane, Peggy Heinrich, Anita Virgil, André Surridge, Cynthia Rowe, Marje A. Dyck, Marilyn Potter, Kai Falkman, Bruce R. Boynton, Feu Violet, CaroleAnn Lovin, LeRoy Gorman, Lucille Raizada, Owen Bullock

We do hope that you will enjoy this issue of World Haiku Review.

Kengin,

Susumu Takiguchi
Managing Editor & Acting Editor-in-Chief, World Haiku Review
Chairman, The World Haiku Club

Kala Ramesh
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, World Haiku Review
Rohini Gupta
Technical Editor, World Haiku Review

---

Alice Osborn sent this:

I'm thrilled to announce the pre-order season of my newest poetry book, After the Steaming Stops which will be published March 2012 by Main Street Rag Publishing Company.

Pre-order price is 30% off (reg price $11) at $7. Order now to beat the crowd and save some money for your future self. www.mainstreetrag.com/AOsborn_2.html

Yes, the catch is that you won't have it in your hands for the holidays, BUT if you tell me that you pre-ordered it because of this email, the first four people will receive a free signed copy of my smash hit Unfinished Projects! Here I am at my last reading at Only at Barnhills in Winston-Salem:



Read what poet Scott Owens says about After the Steaming Stops:

“In Tillie Olson's ‘I Stand Here Ironing,’ we've seen the image of the ironing board and the steam press used before as a revelation of the hazards of the American dream of perfection (particularly for women)—perfect house, perfect marriage, perfect family, perfect composure. In these poignant poems, Alice Osborn hauntingly and painfully updates and expands the use of domestic imagery as an expression of that narrow dream's tyranny, adding to it the expectations and regimentation inherited from a successful military grandfather, and the inevitable insufficiency of everything else.”

and poet Sara Claytor, “This is a book crammed with images, explicit descriptions, characters and emotions. It needs to be read.”

Warmest and thank you so much for your support, my friends!

Alice

Alice Osborn, M.A. is the author of three books of poetry, After the Steaming Stops (Main Street Rag, 2012), Unfinished Projects (Main Street Rag, 2010) and Right Lane Ends (Catawba, 2006); she is a manuscript editor, successful blogger and powerful speaker. Alice teaches creative writing all over the country where she uses sensory images and road-tested prompts to stimulate her students’ best work. Her work has appeared in Raleigh’s News and Observer, The Pedestal Magazine, and in numerous journals and anthologies. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband and two children. Visit her website at www.aliceosborn.com

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Dietmar Tauchner sent this:

schnee by dietmar tauchner & bernd bechtloff - cd release

"schnee" -
an exceptional audio book has been released a few days ago.
blixa bargeld, singer of the einstuerzende neubauten and bass player at nick cave and the bad seeds, and others reciting poems by dietmar tauchner in a modern, unexpected, extatic and sensual way.
in combination with the excellent music by bernd bechtloff, "schnee" is the soundtrack of a sonorous silence. the album "schnee" introduces snow as the 5th element, as a broad screen for the psyche. "schnee" is a secret path to the virtual dimensions of being. now you may listen to the snow to warm up your mind.

available at www.mokshamusic.at - blechbernd@hotmail.com
or at www.bregengemme.net  - bregengemme@aon.at

outtakes from the cd at

http://bregengemme.net/bregengemme/pages/en/audio.php

http://www.mokshamusic.at/mm-main.php

---

Sasa Vazic sent this:

Haiku Reality Vol. 8, No. 15, Winter 2011 Issue is Out

http://haikureality.webs.com/indexeng.htm

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A new issue of Sketchbook is online.

Sunday updates

Pris Campbell sent this:

Rusty Truck has one of my poems up today in its Days of Protest series. If you feel so moved and are able to comment on the site to let the editor know you read it and what you think about it, I would be grateful.

http://rustytruck.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/let-them-eat-cake-by-pris-campbell/

xxPris

Visit my website at http://www.poeticinspire.com
and my blog, Songs To A Midnight Sky at http://poeticinspire.blogspot.com/

---

Here are the results of the 13th HIA Haiku Contest (2011)

---

colin stewart jones sent this:

Hi all,

The new issue of NFTG looks great and will be up around the 8th. There is a teaser up now!

http://www.notesfromthegean.com/currentissue.html

There are now too many mags coming out on or around the same day (this was not the case when we fist started) which has created a bottleneck of haiku.

As we are not in competition with anyone and we would hope that due time will be given to reading every magazine properly we have decided to delay publication of NFTG by one week.

However, we don't want to keep you waiting too long for your favourite magazine but because of the reasons stated above, NFTG will now hit the cyber stands around the middle of the month for future issues.

thanks.

---

Collin Barber had a flash fiction piece published recently in Spilling Ink Review.

---

Roberta Beary was awarded an honorable mention in the Haiku Internation Association contest for this poem:

weeping willow
soldiers trudge by
without a glance

Roberta also received an Editor's Choice award from The Heron's Nest for the following poem:

closing time
winter dusk slides down
the book drop

http://www.theheronsnest.com/haiku/1304R1922/thn_issue.e1.html

Wednesday updates

A Hundred Gourds

The first issue of A Hundred Gourds: a quarterly journal of haiku, haibun, haiga and tanka poetry is now online.

http://ahundredgourds.com

The Editorial Team of A Hundred Gourds extends warmest thanks to everyone who submitted their work for consideration for this, our inaugural issue. Thanks to your enthusiastic welcome, it’s a bumper edition.

As well as haiku, tanka, haiga and haibun you’ll find essays, interviews and a review in the Expositions section. There is also a memorial Feature dedicated to the late Janice M. Bostok, Australia’s haiku pioneer.

Please join us in welcoming three new editors to the AHG team:

William Sorlien, of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, is Renku Editor, already organising A Hundred Gourds’ first renku section, which will be published in AHG 1:2.

Susan Constable, of Vancouver Island, Canada, is the new Tanka Editor. Susan’s first tanka section will be published in AHG 1:2.

Mike Montreuil, of Ontario, Canada, is the new Haibun Editor. Mike’s first haibun section will be published in AHG 1:3.

A Hundred Gourds welcomes your submissions to the New Years’ editions.

·        Special notice for tanka & renku submissions to AHG 1:2 & 1:3

The submission period for tanka and renku only has been extended for the March issue, AHG 1:2. Submissions of tanka and renku received up to the 31st December will be considered for AHG 1:2. Tanka and renku submissions received between January 1st and March 15th will be considered for AHG 1:3. Please read the submissions guidelines page on the AHG website for further details.

The deadline for haiku, haibun, haiga and for the Expositions section of AHG 1:2 remains at December the 15th.

Lorin Ford, haiku editor,
for the Editorial Team
A Hundred Gourds

---

Haibun Today (December 2011) is now online.

The winter quarterly issue of Haibun Today is now online for your reading pleasure at http://haibuntoday.com

Contributors to this issue include Melissa Allen, Deb Baker, Dawn Bruce, Owen Bullock, Steven Carter, Marcyn Del Clements, Glenn G. Coats, David Cobb, Anne Curran, Tish Davis, Cherie Hunter Day, Eduardo N. del Valle, Lisa Fleck Dondiego, Claire Everett, Jeffrey Harpeng, Ruth Holzer, Ken Jones, Robert W. Kimsey, Gary LeBel, Marie Lecrivain, Chen-ou Liu, Bob Lucky, Victor Maddalena, Marian Olson, Kathe L. Palka, Carol Pearce-Worthington, Stanley Pelter, Dru Philippou, Patricia Prime, William M. Ramsey, Ray Rasmussen, Bruce Ross, Cynthia Rowe, Miriam Sagan, Lucas Stensland, John Stone, Charles Tarlton, Diana Webb and Rich Youmans.

This issue also features reprints of historically and critically important documents on the art of haibun from difficult-to-find out-of-print or limited edition publications; these reprints include three essays by David Cobb that span the period 2000-2010 as well as an interview conducted by Rich Youmans with William M. Ramsey. In addition, Dru Philippou and Charles Tarlton in separate articles focus upon contemporary tanka prose while Tish Davis reviews the recent highlight of the same in special issues of the journal Atlas Poetica.

Writers are now invited to submit haibun, tanka prose and articles for consideration in the March 2012 issue of Haibun Today. Consult our Submission Guidelines at Haibun Today.

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Sunday Dec 4 Free Music, Dance, Poetry, Food

Sunday, December 4th, 3 -4pm 

Quail Ridge Books, Wade Avenue, Raleigh

Fleur de Lisa Vocal performances by Durham’s award-winning female vocal group (Best Original Song Competition, Harmony Sweeps Mid-Atlantic Regional Finals) Performing original compositions with poetry as lyrics.

Laurece West celebrated Durham jazz singer(International Women in Jazz). 

Stephanie Levin, Smoke of Her Body (Jacar Press)
Sensuous and precise, these poems explore the boundaries and transgressions between parents, children, lovers: the ways we confine one another, the ways we break free. 

“This one just has that punch in the stomach, ‘wow, who the f#!% wrote this’ factor going for it. I like how the poems are strong, yet understated, loud and quiet at the same time.” 

        - Dorianne Laux, The Book of Men (W.W. Norton)

Lou Lipsitz, If This World Falls Apart (Blue Lynx Poetry Prize)

Quiet and deep reflections upon our inner struggles: loss, psychological change, the ways in which we are unknown to ourselves. Many poems focus on men’s issues.

Kathryn Kirpatrick, Unaccountable Weather (Press 53)

Honest, moving and uplifting poems about the woman who undergoes mastectomy, the woman who survives, the woman as mother, lover, goddess.

Richard Krawiec, She Hands me the Razor (Press 53)

A stunning collection about love, loss, moving on, and finding love and transcendence again. Poems performed with dancer Claire Constantikes, director Neck of the Woods, Wake Forest.

Food samples from The Sound of Poets Cooking (Jacar Press). 

Part of the proceeds go to the Angel Tree at Quail Ridge Books.

Also, we may plan a holiday drop in on Sunday Dec. 11, in the afternoon, so kids can come.  Might ask anyone who writes, paints, crafts, to bring items for display upstairs in case anyone wants to shop.  Are any of you going to be around/interested on Dec. 11?

Richard Krawiec,

Check out my websites!

http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html

http://www.rkeditor.com/

http://jacarpress.com/index.html 

---

the Basho-ki Pages are completely up!

http://cliffordroberts.tripod.com/bk.htm

I want to thank you once again for contributing to basho-ki 2011.

I hope you enjoy an obsessive compulsive walk around the haiku frog pond through the years with us.

leaping
into the sound
of haiku

kawazu
aka
Cliff T. Roberts,
President, Fort Worth Haiku Society
http://www.facebook.com/FWHaikuSociety
basho-ki http://cliffordroberts.tripod.com/bk.htm

---

Contest for College Writers

Dear Professor,

We are writing to let you know about the sixth annual Anthony Abbott Undergraduate Poetry Award, a celebration of student writing, sponsored by the Charlotte Writers’ Club. We welcome poems from college students all over North Carolina. This year’s deadline is February 1, 2012.  There is no entry fee.

Judge this year is the renowned poet and nonfiction writer Rebecca McLanahan. Rebecca McClanahan has published nine books, most recently Deep Light: New and Selected Poems and The Riddle Song and Other Rememberings, which won the Glasgow Award for nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, in anthologies published by Norton, Doubleday, Putnam, and Beacon, and in numerous journals. Past recipient of the Wood Prize from Poetry, the Carter Prize from Shenandoah, a Pushcart Prize in fiction, and fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts and North Carolina Arts Council, McClanahan teaches in the low-residency MFA programs of Queens University and Rainier Writers Workshop.

The contest winner will receive $150, and five honorable mentions will receive $50.  One special honorable mention of $100 will be given in honor of the founder of the contest, dramatist, poet, and art activist Louise Rockwell, who passed away last year.

Winners will be announced on April 17, at the Central Piedmont Community College Sensoria Event sponsored by the Charlotte Writers’ Club. Winning poets will have the honor of reading before a large audience of their peers alongside featured poet Dorianne Laux, in celebration of National Poetry Month.

This year for the first time we will accept online entries. Students entering poems must also provide proof of undergraduate status by having an instructors email a verifying statement to: lisa.williams.kline@gmail.com. Questions about the contest may be addressed to Terri Wolfe at twolfe900@gmail.com.

Complete guidelines appear on the Charlotte Writers Club website, www.charlottewritersclub.com.

Please urge your students to enter! And please forward this information to any other instructors you think might be interested.

Best,
Terri Wolfe                            
Lisa Kline
Co-chairs

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There will be a guest poet with a recipe and poem on The Frugal Poet web site soon.

Susan Constable - Three Questions

Susan Constable began writing haiku in 2006. Since then, she’s tried her hand at  haiga, haibun, and tanka. Her work has been published in over 30 journals as well as numerous anthologies including Montage: The Book, New Resonance 6, several Red Moon anthologies, and 57 Damn Good Haiku by Some of Our Friends. She enjoys chocolate on a daily basis, has learned to say no, never dyed her hair, and lives by the work motto: It’s not perfect, but better than it was. Susan lives with her husband on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada.

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1) Why do you write haiku?

Mainly because I enjoy it. As soon as it stops being fun, I’ll move on to something else. In the meantime, I write at least one a day, no matter how bad it is . . . going by the philosophy that to write one good haiku, one must write a hundred bad ones. Writing haiku provides a wonderful incentive to observe nature (both human and otherwise) and to marvel at the intricacies of the world around us. I also write for the connection made with poets through reading and commenting on each other’s haiku and, to be honest, for the satisfaction of getting my work published.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

As I get older, my attention span seems to be shrinking so anything short is more likely to get my vote these days. Although I began by writing fixed forms, then free verse, all my writing now (and most of my poetry reading) is of haiku, tanka, and the occasional haibun. I thoroughly enjoy creating haiga and I’ve begun to dabble in some of the Japanese linked forms, but it’s still a bit of a struggle with anything longer than 12 verses.

3)  Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?

What an impossible question! I have no idea what wonderful means, in this context, and doubt that I’ve written any such thing. However, here are three that I still like, even though they were published several years ago.


amber light
the time it takes
a leaf to fall

The Heron’s Nest, Vol X, 2008


no moon . . .  
the sound of leaves
catching rain

White Lotus Haiku Competition, “Commended”, #8, 2009


planting the garden –              
what to do with the rest
of my life

Simply Haiku, Vol 7 No 3, 2009


I’ve enjoyed your blog for quite some time, so it’s an added pleasure to share a few thoughts with you, along with some of my haiku. Thanks so much, Curtis, for all the time you spend on Tobacco Road, which is such a benefit to the haiku community.

Susan

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haiku or tanka - to the three questions that Susan answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Snapshot Press News

From Snapshot Press:

The Haiku Calendar 2012

The Haiku Calendar 2012 – the thirteenth annual calendar from Snapshot Press – is now available to order.

This attractive desk calendar features 52 haiku by 39 authors from around the world.

Not only is the standard of work in the calendar outstanding, but each year the press receives numerous comments on how effective the calendar is for introducing people to haiku (or vice versa) – all year long! Please consider supporting the press – and haiku! – by purchasing a copy for yourself and/or gift copies for friends, relatives, colleagues, etc.

Further details are available at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/calendars/the_haiku_calendar/2012.htm

In previous years orders placed by December 17 have arrived at the majority of overseas destinations before Christmas. However, the last recommended order dates for delivery before Christmas are

UK: Friday December 16

Western Europe: Saturday December 10

USA, Canada and Eastern Europe: Thursday December 8

Rest of World: Saturday December 3

But order now to avoid disappointment!

* * *

All work included in the The Haiku Calendar is selected each year from entries to the Haiku Calendar Competition.

The deadline for The Haiku Calendar Competition 2012 (for work to be considered for the 2013 calendar) is January 31, 2012. Entries may now be sent by email as well as by post. Please see the entry guidelines at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/thcc/entry_guidelines.htm for details.


About the press: Founded in 1997, Snapshot Press is committed to furthering opportunities for the publication and consideration of ‘specialist’ and ‘mainstream’ poetry on an equal footing. The press is Britain’s leading independent publisher of haiku, tanka and other short poetry, with titles honoured by the Haiku Society of America and the Poetry Society of America.

“Snapshot Press sets the platinum standard for design and production values among haiku and tanka books. Their quality is unsurpassed. Indeed, books from Snapshot Press are always a tactile and poetic delight.”

—Michael Dylan Welch in Modern Haiku

* * *

The Snapshot Press Book Awards

This is the final call for submissions of unpublished collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun to this year’s Snapshot Press Book Awards.

Up to four Award winners will have their collections published by Snapshot Press.

If sending entries and/or entry fees by mail the last date these may be postmarked is Wednesday November 30. This is also the last date for paying the entry fee online.

For this year only, providing the entry fee is paid online or sent by mail by that date, manuscripts in electronic format may be entered by email up to and including Friday December 23 (this being roughly the last date that postal entries are expected to arrive from overseas due to delays associated with seasonal mail). So, in effect, there are still 4 weeks remaining in which to prepare and submit manuscripts.

Please note that there is no extension for the receipt of entry fees: for administrative reasons the entry fee itself must be sent or paid online by the end of November. Confirmation of receipt will be sent when both the entry fee and manuscript have been received.

Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/book_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

* * *

eChapbook Awards

The winners of the inaugural Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards have been announced. 

Congratulations to Chad Lee Robinson, Carole MacRury, Kathe L. Palka, Marian Olson, Vanessa Proctor, Lorin Ford, Penny Harter and Beverly Acuff Momoi, who will have their collections published online throughout January and February.

A print anthology of outstanding work by these and other authors will also be published in 2012. The full list of poets with work selected for the anthology will be announced in December.

For further details please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/echapbook_awards/results.htm

The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards are international annual prizes for unpublished short collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun. Submissions are open from March 1–July 31 each year. Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/echapbook_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

Unpublished book-length collections of haiku, tanka, short poetry and haibun may be submitted for print publication to The Snapshot Press Book Awards. Please see http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/book_awards/guidelines.htm for guidelines and further details.

an'ya - Three Questions (Tanka)

an'ya has been published numerous times, placed in and judged many contests. She is currently the HSA Regional Coordinator for the state of Oregon. She also practices the art of suiseki and exhibits stones with haiku and tanka. The photo is of an'ya and her friend Cynthia Timar taken at the Bend Haiku Weekend this past June.

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1) Why do you write tanka?

I write tanka because on occasion there is a need to express more emotion than will go into a haiku. I enjoy the fact that tanka is a very old form and I like its rhythmic feeling.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

Haiku of course comes first for me, but I'm also a published mainstream poet. I have written everything from epic poems to pattern poems, and probably everything in-between before I settled on the Japanese forms.

3) Of the many wonderful tanka you’ve written, what do you consider to be your top three?

Well there are 2 familiar ones that everyone else seemed to like (which I never want to hear again ):


cold cemetery
the long sleeves of your old coat
warm my fingertips
even from beyond this grave
you manage to comfot me



old memories
like tangled fish hooks
impossible
to pick up only one
without all the others



but my personal favorite is this one:


midsummer's eve
underneath a rose moon
I'll wait for you
until my hands are bloodied
from holding back the dawn

an'ya

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If you've been enjoying this series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response - whether it be for haiku or tanka - to the three questions that an'ya answered. You must be a published poet to participate.

Sunday updates

Aubrie Cox has made two excellent haiku ebooks available for download. Click on the titles to view/download.

Tea with Trolls

the backlit fog

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Charlotte Digregorio sent this:

Haikuists:

In the Chicago Metro area, we will meet Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Winnetka Public Library,  768 Oak St., Winnetka, IL.

This will be a critique meeting. More details to come as the date draws near.

Charlotte also sent this:

Recap of November 2011 HSA Meeting in Chicago Area

HSA members met for a haiku critique session at Skokie Public Library in Skokie, IL on Saturday, Nov. 12. They were joined by
guests Cynthia Gallaher and Felicia Kaplan.

Participants each received critique of four haiku. Charlotte Digregorio, Midwest Regional Coordinator, stressed that participants should focus on the beauty of haiku for its simplicity and economy of words. For the benefit of many beginners in the group, she spoke of valuable journals, websites, and blogs by HSA members that would assist them in learning the art, along with using HSA’s website and Facebook page for timely information.

Illinois Member Tom Chockley announced that he and Missouri Member Jeanne Allison seek more haikuists to network with by
email. They wish to share haiku, questions, and ideas. To join them, members may contact Tom @ sino_chockley@hotmail.com

Charlotte began the session by speaking about why haikuists love the art and write it. She quoted Midwest HSA members who had
recently responded to that question in her blog. Among responses were:

“In this fast-fleeting world, I find the moment even more momentous. Writing a haiku that captures the wonder of time in
my own words and thought is a tiny miracle of gratitude.”

--Donna Bauerly, Iowa

“The reason I write haiku is what I would guess most people would say is their reason. To set down a marker for the really
important things in my life. A walk in the woods is so much better to focus on than memorializing your fears about a global financial meltdown, or a terrorist attack or the coming hurricane, etc.”

--Mike Rehling, Michigan

“I write haiku because of the joy I get from paying attention and noticing what’s going on around me and within me. I feel each day offers gifts of insight and moments worthy of contemplation or prayers of thanksgiving. I feel more alive when I am writing haiku!”

--Dr. Randy Brooks, Illinois

Next, Charlotte reviewed her “Basic Elements of Haiku” list, including guidelines such as avoidance of making judgmental
statements, and limited use of adjectives, the latter which the beginning haikuists found challenging. She also explained that in a three-line haiku, it’s important to give readers a sense of season, time, or place in the first line, so the image is clear to readers.

Among haiku presented at the meeting were:

november rains . . .
leaves spiral
into sewers

--Ilze Arajs


at the beach
in september
sunbathers milk the rays

--Jim Harper, Illinois

During the session, participants, as a group, brainstormed for winter images, and wrote this haiku:

april thaw . . .
footprints lead to
the merry-go-round

Charlotte said a February 2012 meeting in the Chicago area will take place, with members notified of particulars beforehand by email and notice appearing on the HSA website.

Members may contact Charlotte at her new email address, c-books@hotmail.com, with questions or concerns about activities.

--Submitted by Charlotte Digregorio

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Lorin Ford sent this:

Dear Readers and Contributors,

The inaugural issue of A Hundred Gourds will be a big issue. We are on track for the publication date of December 1st.

Thank you to everyone who submitted haiku to me for A Hundred Gourds, 1:1.

As well as haiku, tanka, haibun and haiga, the December issue will contain a retrospective feature on Janice M. Bostok’s haiku life, essays by John Carley, Jack Galmitz and Chen-ou Liu and interviews with two haiku poets whose names we’re keeping as a surprise.

Submissions for A Hundred Gourds 1:2, the March issue, will remain open until the deadline of December 15th.

I welcome your haiku submissions for AHG issue 1:2 any time up to and including December 15th. After that date, all submissions received will be held over for consideration for the June issue , A Hundred Gourds 1:3.

Please include your name and country of residence directly beneath the last haiku within the text of your email. Further details about submissions to all of the editors are on the A Hundred Gourds temporary webpage, here:

http://ahundredgourds.haikuhut.com/

On December 1st, this same url will take you to the inaugural issue and the temporary webpage will be abandoned.

warm wishes,

Lorin
--
Lorin Ford, haiku editor,
A Hundred Gourds

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Susumu Takiguchi sent this:

WORLD HAIKU REVIEW

Re: Call for Submissions for the Next Issue

Dear Kuyu,

The next issue of World Haiku Review (WHR) is planned for December 2011.

As for haiku poems in English or in English translation, send in by e-mail anything you like, traditional or non-traditional on any topic, free or formal style, kigo or muki, up to ten poems which have not been published or are not considered for publication elsewhere to both: kalaramesh8@gmail.com AND susumu.takiguchi@btinternet.com Please use the font "Ariel", size 12 and present your haiku in the simplest and most straightforward format, all starting from the left margin, avoiding fanciful layout and formation. Please do not forget to write your country with your full name. Suggested themes: happiness, unhappiness and autumn and/or winter scenes

The only criterion for selection is quality. Please therefore send in your finest works as soon as you can.

There is no set deadline but we will announce when enough number of good works are received, and the submission will be closed soon after that. We ourselves will put selected haiku poems in either the Neo-classical, Shintai (or new style) or Vanguard sections according to their characteristics. You, as the writer, therefore need not worry abouth this classification. Just send what happens to come out best and we will do the rest.

As for other works relating to haiku (haibun, articles, essays, haiga or bookreviews on haiku etc.), just send in whatever you think would deserve publication in WHR. Once again, quality is the key.

If you have books which you wish to be reviewed, send a review copy to me.

I will mention some indications about our selection below for those who may be interested to know them. (For detailed explanation, visit the Editorial of WHR August 2011 at: http://sites.google.com/site/worldhaikureview2/whr-august-2011)

We wish to continue to endeavour to present a unique haiku magazine which, while deeply rooted in tradition, is full of new ideas, innovative features or critical views. It will continue to aim at the highest standards and top quality as always.

Kengin to all,

Susumu Takiguchi
Managing Editor and Acting Editor-in-Chief, World Haiku Review
Chairman, The World Haiku Club

* * *

INDICATIONS FOR HAIKU SELECTION

THOSE LIKELY TO BE REJECTED

1 Hackneyed, clichés, imitative or derivative;
2 'So what?' haiku;
3 Too short to be good;
4 Made artificially vague (false 'yugen');
5 Gimmicky as opposed to real skills;
6 Bad English;
7 Template-like, or ticking-box-kind factory haiku;

THOSE LIKELY TO BE ACCEPTED

1 New and/or original;
2 Have something to say;
3 Reflecting truths, sincerity and honesty;
4 Coming from your heart and soul;
5 Based on your real and deep experiences;
6 If products of your imagination, true, fine and deep at that;
7 Away from rules & regulations and yet good;
8 Good choice and order of words;
9 Have good rhythm;
10 Pictorial and/or musical feel;
11 Have some sense of humour;
12 Reflecting the grasp of the essence of haiku (a sense of brevity, humour, somewhat detached view or karumi)

INDICATIONS FOR SELECTION OF OTHER WORKS

Basically, many things about haiku would apply to them as well. Additionally:

THOSE LIKELY TO BE REJECTED

1 Repeating what others have said many times;
2 Trapped by and subservient to rules and regulations;
3 Uncritical parroting of received views or conventional wisdom;

THOSE LIKELY TO BE ACCEPTED

1 Critical (the more so, the better);
2 Innovative;
3 New contributions to the understanding of haiku;

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Keibooks Announces Atlas Poetica 10 : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka


Press Release – For Immediate Release – Please post to all appropriate venues

7 November 2011 – Perryville, Maryland, USA

Today Keibooks releases Atlas Poetica 10, the latest issue of the highly regarded journal. ATPO 10 continues to publish tanka, waka, kyoka, and gogyoshi, along with sequences, prosimetrum, book reviews, announcements, and non-fiction articles on a variety of topics.

This issue focuses on gogyoshi, and publishes the ‘Declaration of Gogyoshi’ by Taro Aizu, the foremost advocate of gogyoshi working in English, as well as examples of the genre by various practitioners. It also has a focus on book reviews, including an in depth analysis of Denis M. Garrison’s First Winter Rain, by Charles Tarlton.

In addition, in keeping with Atlas Poetica’s dedication to scholarship about tanka, kyoka, and gogyoshi in various countries around the world, we are pleased to publish an article by Margaret Dornaus about Carles Riba and Catalonian tanka, as international contributions by poets from around the world.

Contributors to ATPO 10:

Amelia Fielden, André Surridge, Angie LaPaglia, Aubrie Cox, Autumn Noelle Hall, Bruce England, Carmella Braniger, Carol Raisfield, Charles Tarlton, Chen-ou Liu, Claire Everett, Cody Gohl, David Caruso, Edward J. Rielly, Elizabeth Moura, Gary Severance, Gerry Jacobson, Guy Simser, Hinemaia, Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah, James Tipton, James Won, Jeffrey Harpeng, 1Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Kath Abela Wilson, Luminita Suse, M. Kei, Margaret Chula, Margaret Dornaus, Margaret Van Every, Marilyn Humbert, Mark Burgh, Matt Esteves Hemmerich, Owen Bullock, Patricia Prime, Peggy Heinrich, Randy Brooks, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Sonam Chhoki, Sylvia Forges-Ryan, T. J. Edge, Taro Aizu, Taura Scott, Terry Ingram, Tish Davis, Tracy Davidson

Purchase online at: http://atlaspoetica.org/?page_id=84

or through your favorite online retailer.

Keibooks
P O Box 516
Perryville, MD 21903

AtlasPoetica.org

--
M. Kei
Editor, Atlas Poetica
A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka