Friday, February 25, 2011

Friday updates 02/25/2011

Cathy Drinkwater Better sent this:

HIBIKI, by Cathy Drinkwater Better and Geert Verbeke. Empty Sky, Flanders, Belgium; December 2010. HIBIKI is the first collaborative book of haiku by Cathy Drinkwater Better (Maryland, USA) and Geert Verbeke (Flanders, Belgium). This 40-page, side-stapled, digest-size book—“…a unique blend of fine and touching feelings…as the finely knitted thought of a reverberating emotion…” wrote New Delhi, India, reviewer Jasvinder Singh—contains two individual sections of 72 haiku each, one devoted to each poet’s work and a brief biographical note. This limited-edition collection is available exclusively through the poets at the present time. To order in the U.S. and elsewhere, write to: Cathy Drinkwater Better, 613 Okemo Drive, Eldersburg, MD 21784 USA; the cost is $10, postage paid. For more information, e-mail Cathy at cbetter@juno.com or visit her Web site at www.cathydrinkwaterbetter.com. For information on ordering a copy from Geert, visit his Web site at: http://www.haikugeert.net, and click on CYBERWIT INDIA at the top; or write to him at Leo Baekelandlaan14, B-8500, Kortrijk, Flanders, Belgium.



From Charlotte Digregorio:

Haikufest To Inspire Poets To Publish

Beginning and advanced poets will learn to appreciate, write, and enhance their haiku skills, from 1 to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, May 7 at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston, IL. The event with lecture, discussion, and exhibition of poetry and art, is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Midwest Region of the Haiku Society of America and the Evanston Public library. Pre-registration is required.

Haiku is short, meditative poetry that originated in Japan in the 1600s, and is currently gaining popularity worldwide in many languages. It is often three lines, has seventeen syllables or less, and captures the moment, with usually a reference to nature or the seasons.

The first presentation, "Haiku: A Path Leading to Conservation Thought," will integrate a lecture on haiku style, form, and history with a discussion of the underlying thought of reverence for nature. Charlotte Digregorio, HSA Midwest Regional Coordinator, will speak. She is an award-winning author, poet, and educator, recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry. Her poetry has been translated into several languages, and is often exhibited in public venues.

"A Writing Life in Seventeen Syllables or Less," will follow by award-winning Iowa Poet Francine Banwarth. She will discuss what inspires her to write haiku, and her methods of writing with multi-layers of meaning.

Banwarth, who is regularly published worldwide in haiku journals and anthologies, and who has served as a haiku leader, educator, and poetry competition judge for organizations including HSA, says: "Haiku for me is not so much a way of thinking a moment, as it is a way of feeling a moment. I think that is where intuition enters in, as if there is a hermit inside me, or as if I am in a quiet place, breathing under water."

Subsequently, Randy Brooks, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Millikin University and Professor of English, will speak on "The Role of Kukai in The Haiku Tradition." Kukai is a haiku contest in which participating poets are judges. Preceding Haikufest, attendees may submit from three to five haiku by April 23 to Brooks at brooksbooks@sbcglobal.net. These haiku will be exhibited at Haikufest and judged.

Brooks and his wife, Shirley, are co-editors and poetry publishers of Brooks Books. They also edit "Mayfly," a haiku magazine. An award-winning poet who teaches haiku at Millikin, Brooks is the author of "School's Out," his haiku collection, and is co-editor of anthologies including the "Global Haiku Anthology." He is co-chair of the American Haiku Archives at California State Library in Sacramento.

The last presentation will be "Haiga: History and Technique." Poet and artist Lidia Rozmus will reveal the art of haiku accompanied by an ink painting. She will exhibit and discuss her work.

Rozmus has authored and designed several portfolios and books on Japanese-style poetry and haiga that have won HSA awards, including,"A Dandelion's Flight Haiku and Sumi-e"; "Twenty Views from Mole Hill: My Journey"; and "Hailstones, Haiku by Taneda Santoka." Rozmus' art has been exhibited throughout the U.S., Japan, and Poland.

HSA is a not-for-profit organization to promote the writing and appreciation of haiku in English. Its website is www.hsa-haiku.org

For more information on Haikufest, and to pre-register, contact Charlotte Digregorio, 847-881-2664 or the Evanston Public Library, 847-448-8600.



Marie Kasprzak sent this:

'A beautiful job!' (Elisavietta Ritchie), 'I see wonderful haiku ...' (Neal Whitman), 'Your first issue was a strong one, with great production values. An impressive start' (William Hart).

Dear Poet,

These are only some of the comments we have received following the publication of the inaugural issue if Haiku Pix Review #1, Winter 2011. True to its name, HRP aims to publish haiku that use juxtaposition of images to produce emotion:


spring apple tree
on the old gnarled trunk
its own shadow

-- Bruce Ross

raindrops
on a lotus leaf ...
homecoming

-- Chen-ou Liu


The deadline for Haiku Pix Review #2, Spring 2011 is February 28, 2011. Offer us your honest best!

Also consider entering our Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest. The new deadline is April 1, 2011. Electronic submissions accepted. Visit: www.haikupix.com

Best regards,

Marie Kasprzak and Tad Wojnicki

editor@haikupix.com/
or
haiku@haikupix.com/



Colin Stewart Jones reports that the new issue of Notes from the Gean will be available online on March 1st. He writes:

"enjoy folks it should be a good one!"

col



Scott Owens sent this:

Hi, Curtis,

I have a new book of poems coming out in August, and it is available for discounted advance order right now. The cover price will be $14, but by ordering it online from the publisher's website, you can get it for $9 plus shipping.

The book can be ordered from the Coming Soon page of the MSR Online Bookstore. Here is a link that will take you directly there: http://www.mainstreetrag.com/store/.

The book is called Something Knows the Moment. I'm including comments about it from Fred Chappell, Joseph Bathanti, and a couple of other early readers below. The sooner we meet the publisher's advance sales goal, the sooner the book will be released, so you can help me out by ordering yours now. I'll be giving readings all over NC in the fall, so you should still have a chance to get your copy signed if you like.

Something Knows the Moment may also be ordered by check or credit card directly from the publisher; however, the discount is not as much if ordered this way ($12/book--postage included). Send to: Main Street Rag, PO BOX 690100, Charlotte, NC 28227-7001. Credit card orders, call 704-573-2516 (M-F 9am-5pm EST).

Something Knows the Moment by Scott Owens

Published by: Main Street Rag Publishing Company

ISBN: 9781599483023, ~114 pages, $14 (cover price)

“Why ask where none can answer?” Scott Owens’ collection, Something Knows the Moment, poses this question and accompanies it with a hundred others about the nature of God, the nature of faith, of doubt, of trust and distrust, disillusion and resignation. The answer is, We ask because we cannot help but ask. --These poems are necessary.
---- Fred Chappell, NC Poet Laureate

By turns these poems are terrifying and glorious, always luminous, informed by an abiding faith that the liturgy of poetry will leave us burnished and restored.
--Joseph Bathanti, author of Restoring Sacred Art

Scott Owens has the audacity to reimagine The Good Book. It is a resurrection not to be missed: haunted, funny, and outrageous, by turns, fiercely imagined, wonderfully accessible, Scott Owens’ latest shows him to be one of the most engaging and readable poets currently working in the South.
--David Rigsbee, author of The Red Tower

Scott Owens stares steadfastly into the “unrelenting zero.” Owens’ motives shed new light on some of the oldest ideas ever, forcing the reader to immediately ponder his own nature and humanity. Good poetry does precisely this. At the root of these poems is a deep and palpable compassion. There is a tenderness in this book that might shame you.
-- Joe Milford, The Joe Milford Poetry Show

All my best,

Scott Owens



Sasa Vazic and Robert D. Wilson has informed me that Professor Michael Marra passed away.

http://marra.bol.ucla.edu/

Robert D. Wilson interviewed Michael a few years ago:

http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n3/features/Marra.html

My sincere condolences to the friends and family of  Professor Marra.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

John McManus - Three Questions

John McManus first came across haiku when he picked up a book of old Japanese poems in his local library and has been hooked ever since. He started to write in the hope that someday he could come up with a haiku as good as the ones that had inspired him. He began to send in submissions to various journals and magazines in the middle of 2010 and quickly found a network of friendly, intelligent poets who gave him many helpful suggestions and much needed honesty. John had his first lot of haiku published at the end of 2010 in The Heron's Nest and Notes from the Gean. When he isn't writing John likes to spend time with his wife and two young children.



1) Why do you write haiku?

When I started to write poetry I wrote longer rhyming poems and a bit of free verse sometimes. As I got more knowledgeable about the plethora of poetic forms there is to experiment with I went down to the local library, where I stumbled across a book of old Japanese poems. After reading it cover to cover several times I just felt I needed to try and master this brief but beautiful form, and I haven't stopped writing since. I love to play with words, and feel the ability to create a poem that says so much with so few words is a skill that only the sharpest of minds can achieve.

2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?

I really do love rhyming poems rather than free verse. Edgar Allen Poe’s work has heavily influenced my longer poetry style. If I am truthful not much contemporary poetry excites or interests me, I much prefer to read classical or modern lyrical poets.


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

I am not sure how many wonderful haiku I have written but the ones I like the best are;


thunderclap

the warmth

of her breast

The Heron’s Nest. Volume XII, Number 4: December, 2010


muffled hymns

cigarette smoke

fills the churchyard

Notes from the Gean. Volume 2, Issue 3.


sorting laundry

a flock of blackbirds

on the fence

Notes from the Gean. Volume 2, Issue 3.



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

Sunday updates 2/20/2011

Ray Rasmussen sent this:

Hi Curtis,

If you've not yet made it, please post the announcement as follows:

Announcing Day's End: A collection of haiku, senryu and tanka matched with images and of haibun on the subject of aging by 50 poets. Editor Ray Rasmussen. Guest Editor Anita Virgil.
http://raysweb.net/daysendpoetry

Thanks,

Ray



Michael Dylan Welch sent this:

Curtis, thanks for listing the HNA announcement on your blog. Could I trouble you to change the URL it links to? Instead of http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/pages/next.html, please change it to http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/pages/2011.html. Much thanks if you could do this.

Michael



Norman Darlington sent this:

A quick reminder: There's just over a week left before the first issue of Journal of Renga & Renku reverts from an introductory $19.95 to the cover price of $25. So, if you've been postponing your purchase, there will be no better time than now to order your 170-page copy securely online at http://darlingtonrichards.com/jrr

A 17-page online preview, including the full Table of Contents, is available at http://tinyurl.com/preview-jrr1

--
Norman Darlington
Journal of Renga & Renku
http://www.darlingtonrichards.com/



Patrick M. Pilarski sent this:

Dear Readers, Friends, and Contributors,

We are thrilled to announce that submissions are open for DailyHaiku's eleventh publishing cycle!  This coming cycle represents the start of our sixth year of publishing as an online daily periodical.  During Cycle 10, we were excited to see an increase in readership for both our online and print editions. Traffic to www.dailyhaiku.org topped 100,000 hits per month, with up to 4000 unique visitors.

We now invite you to submit some of your best work for possible inclusion in our upcoming cycle (Cycle 11). If you are interested in becoming a Cycle 11 contributor, please see our submission call below. (And please feel free to forward this call on to any other interested parties.)

You may notice that our Spring submissions are open a month early this year. That's because in addition to planning a new cycle, DailyHaiku is also planning a wedding! Your faithful editors are getting married this Spring (to each other, of all people) so we're trying our best to be proactive in our editorial duties.

Thank you once more for helping to make DailyHaiku a lively and dynamic environment to showcase contemporary short form poetry!

All the best,
Patrick and Nicole

Patrick M. Pilarski and Nicole Pakan
Editors --- DailyHaiku

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

Submission are now open for DailyHaiku Cycle 11!
http://www.dailyhaiku.org

DailyHaiku is a print and daily online serial publication that publishes the work of Canadian and international haiku poets, blending contemporary, experimental, and traditional styles to explore the boundaries of English-language haiku. Through our special features section, we also aim to chronicle the diverse and ever-changing landscape of contemporary haiku-related forms. We're now looking for a new roster of six talented haiku poets for our upcoming cycle (Volume 6, Cycle 11, Spring/Summer 2011). If selected as a contributor, you will be responsible for providing a total of 28 haiku over a six-month period.

Submission Period: Feb. 1st--28th, 2011 (closes 11:59 pm Mountain Standard Time)

How to Submit: Email submissions to desk@dailyhaiku.org

What to Submit: Ten unpublished haiku---no more, no less---your contact information, a 75 word publication-ready biographical note, and a digital author photo.  We do not accept work published or under consideration by other journals or websites.

Payment: One contributor copy of the print volume featuring your work.

For specific submission guidelines and more information about this publication, please visit: http://www.dailyhaiku.org



Richard Krawiec sent this:

Curtis,

Did you want to put something about the Gathering of Poets on your blog? Haiku writers are welcome and should benefit from workshops with Kay Byers and Fred Chappell, too.

http://www.press53.com/GatheringofPoets2011.html

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Tuesday updates 2/15/2011

From Jim Kacian:

Call for Haiga

Red Moon Press announces a call for haiga submissions through the rest of the month for consideration of publication in contemporary haibun Volume 12. contemporary haibun has published 16-32 haiga in each of its first 11 issues and looks to continue this tradition. Submissions should be limited to 4 per contributor, and should be 300 dpi. Either jpg or tiff format is fine. Snailmail submissions are also welcome but because of the timeline must be received by 25February2011 to be considered. Email submissions to jim (dot) kacian (at) redmoonpress (dot) com, making the usual substitutions, or snailmail to Red Moon Press, PO Box 2461, Winchester VA 22604-1661 USA. Thank you, and good luck!



From Aubrie Cox:

Call for Submissions: An Anthology of English-Language Haiku by Women

Seeking haiku and senryu for an anthology focusing on excellent English-language haiku by women around the world.

Ladies, send 5-15 of your best haiku, published or unpublished, to paperlanternhaiku [at] gmail.com.

With your submission, please include your name, country, a brief bio of 150 words or less, and any applicable publication credits of submitted poems.

Nominations of poets and individual poems are also welcome, and strongly encouraged.

Deadline: April 15

At this time, unfortunately, there is no payment available for poems accepted.



From Michael Dylan Welch:

Haiku North America 2011 – Seattle, Washington

Save the date! Haiku North America 2011 will be held August 3 to 7, 2011, in Seattle, Washington.

Members of the Haiku Northwest group have generously offered to host the 2011 conference and they have many exciting plans already in the works, including a harbor cruise. The conference itself will be held at the Seattle Center, at the foot of the Space Needle, providing easy access to haiku writing and walking opportunities such as Pike Place Market (via the monorail), the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Experience Music Project rock-and-roll museum and Science Fiction Museum, and countless other attractions—including fleet week and the Seafair festival, with the Blue Angels performing overhead.

The conference theme will be “Fifty Years of Haiku,” celebrating the past, present, and future of haiku in North America. The deadline for proposals has been extended to February 28, 2011 (http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/pages/2011.html) but sooner is better. Proposals do not have to fit the theme. If you’ve already submitted a proposal, please confirm with Michael Dylan Welch at WelchM@aol.com that you can come to Seattle on the new dates. Speakers already include Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others.

Detailed information on registration, lodging, and the conference schedule will be available in March. For further information as it becomes available, please visit www.haikunorthamerica.com. And check out the new HNA blog at http://haikunorthamerica.wordpress.com/.

See you in Seattle!

Garry Gay, Paul Miller, Michael Dylan Welch
Haiku North America



Richard Krawiec sent this:

Curtis, remind your peeps Jacar Press has a call out for poetry submissions. Our last anthology took haiku by a number of writers.

http://jacarpress.com/submit.html



From an'ya:

Hello everyone, this is a Call for Submissions, for just one published haiku (with credits) or an unpublished haiku is also fine. Just your favorite haiku written to-date along with your name, city, state and country (and credits if previously published.) Email anytime to an'ya at haikubyanya@gmail.com with the subject heading HSA haiku Wall. The credits for will be are:

Published on the HSA "haiku Wall" exhibited in the historic Liberty Theatre Gallery at the Quarterly National Haiku Society of America Meeting in Bend, Oregon on June 3-5, 2011 and as part of the downtown Bend Oregon First Friday June Art Walk.

Please also help me pass the word even further along worldwide if you would. Our goal is 500 haiku but if we get even more, that would be fantastic! Full details about the whole event will be forthcoming at the HSA Website and the Haiku Oregon site within a couple of weeks. love ya . . . an'ya, HSA Oregon Regional Coordinator.



From John Barlow:

Hi All

Snapshot Press is currently holding a book sale exclusive to Mailing List members.

The one-off sale runs from the beginning of the traditional haiku season, risshun (the start of spring) (February 4), to the spring equinox on March 20. All of our titles are part of the offer, so why not take advantage of the sale to fill any gaps in your haiku and tanka collections or libraries, or to buy attractive inspirational gifts for the year ahead, or simply to read some different authors?

Simply pay for any 3 publications at any one time from the Snapshot Press site and get a 4th free.

If paying online please place your order as normal then send an email with your name and the name of the item(s) that you would like free to sales@snapshotpress.co.uk.

If ordering by mail order please just note the free item(s) required on your order form. Order forms are available at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/order_form.htm

Full details are available at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/mailing_list_offers/offers.htm

Snapshot Press receives no external funding. The press desperately need funds to commit to new projects, and, as ever, all donations and proceeds from sales are used towards cutting the shortfall in the costs of forthcoming titles and projects.

Thanks for reading!

John Barlow
Editor, Snapshot Press
e: info@snapshotpress.co.uk
w: www.snapshotpress.co.uk

Terms and conditions: The cheapest item (of the 4) is free, the offer ends on March 20, and all titles are subject to availability.



Ed Baker sent this:

here it is ALL FIVE BOOKS 525 pps (plus the intro) in ONE VOLUME:
via Leafe press who is in Nottingham, England
just select the country and the payment type
(Leafe is picking up the shipping cost):

http://www.leafepress.com/catalog/edbaker/stonegirl.html

this to you is about all I have to do with SG's production and distribution and advertising !



haijinx welcomes Roberta Beary as the haijinx quarterly editor for haibun. To learn more about Roberta Beary’s work, please visit http://www.robertabeary.com/.

For each haijinx issue, you may submit up to 2 haibun. No single haibun should exceed 150 words. We do not consider any haibun that has been previously published or accepted for publication in any form. We do not consider any unpublished haibun which include previously published haiku or haiku which have been accepted for publication.

Please submit your best work in the body of an email to

shortpoems at gmail.com

with ‘haijinx haibun submission’ and your name in the subject line.

The submission deadline for the spring issue of haijinx quarterly is March 1st.



Invitation to Apply for Membership in the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS), which offers you a world of haiku practice


All readers of Tobacco Road are invited to join the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society (YTHS) for 2011.

* YTHS Members receive the GEPPO, the bi-monthly study work-journal. A member may submit three haiku for each issue; the haiku are published exactly as submitted. Each member may vote for ten haiku from the preceding issue. The GEPPO includes "Dojins' Corner" where Patricia Machmiller and Jerry Ball each select three haiku and comment on them. Thus writers can learn by studying the work of others and the responses from others to their work.

* Meetings are held monthly in various locations of the San Francisco Bay Area. Members meet (often in natural settings) to write haiku and to study the fascinating art of haiku.

* An annual members’ anthology is published. Members may submit their unpublished haiku and will have at least one poem published in the anthology.

* An annual haiku retreat is held each autumn at the lovely Asilomar Conference Center on the sea coast of Pacific Grove (near Carmel).


More distinctions of Yuki Teikei membership:

* Membership is worldwide: we have members from not only all regions of the U.S.A. but also from Canada, Ireland, Japan, and New Zealand.


* The GEPPO has served, since 1978, as a “town hall” for the society by communicating the ideas and the subtleties of traditional haiku writing.


Join Yuki Teikei:

* Send your membership check ($26 in 2011 for a U.S. address, $31 for an international address) with your contact information to the YTHS Membership Secretary, donnalynn chase, P.O. Box 320433, Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA.

* For further information on YTHS, see:

http://www.youngleaves.org/



Pamela A. Babusci sent this:

MOONBATHING
A JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S TANKA

EDITOR
Pamela A. Babusci

Moonbathing Issue 4 is now accepting submissions. I have additional copies of Moonbathing issue 3, hot off the press. If you wish to purchase a copy(ies), please see information below.

Moonbathing will publish two issues a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Moonbathing will feature only women poets. Send a maximum of 10 tanka per submission period. Submission deadlines:

Spring/Summer: In-hand Deadline: May 15th spring/summer themes or non-seasonal only

No previously published tanka or simultaneous submissions; no tanka that has been posted on-line on a personal website/blog.

SUBMISSION ADDRESSES:

Send your tanka IN THE BODY OF AN E-MAIL to: Pamela A. Babusci: moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com PLEASE NO ATTACHMENTS. E-mail submissions ONLY.
I hope that all tanka poets who have their work accepted will support Moonbathing by purchasing a copy or a subscription. If Moonbathing is to survive it will need your support and I will be most grateful for it.
DONATIONS MOST WELCOME.

DISCLAIMER:
Moonbathing does not assume liability for copyright infringement or failure to acknowledge previously published tanka.

COPIES/SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Subscriptions: $10 for one year (two issues) U.S. and Canada; $5 for single issue. International: $14
(two issues) $7 single issue U.S. dollars; send US cash or international M.O.—payable to Pamela A. Babusci to: Moonbathing Editor
150 Milford Street Apt. 13 14615-1810 USA

The Editor of Moonbathing is looking forward to receiving your best tanka. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Pamela A. Babusci moongate44(at)gmail(dot)com

Respectfully submitted,

Pamela A. Babusci, Editor of Moonbathing



Don Wentworth sent this:

http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/wednesday-haiku-issas-untidy-hut.html