MET Press is pleased to announce the publication of a new journal. The premiere issue of the biannual journal, Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose, edited by Jeffrey Woodward, has been published in print, in PDF ebook, and in an online digital edition. This Summer 2009 issue is 184 pages in a trade paperback. ISSN 1947-606X.

Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose, with this inaugural issue, establishes itself as the first and only periodical devoted exclusively to these two mixed prose-and-verse genres. Haibun and tanka prose belong to the ancient and venerable tradition of Japanese poetry and belles-lettres. Their practice has waned in modern Japan but, with the continuing popularity of their respective parent-forms, haiku and tanka, in the West, haibun and tanka prose are experiencing unprecedented growth and diverse experimentation from New York to London, from Berlin to Brisbane, and in small towns and open countryside around the globe. Haibun and tanka prose are busily revising the general literary map and, in doing so, quietly reforming haiku and tanka also. Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose, a biannual journal, faithfully represents the full range of styles and themes adopted by contemporary practitioners and intends to play a vanguard role in charting the rapid evolution of these genres.

Among 55 contributors from ten countries, poets from Australia and New Zealand include Dawn Bruce, Owen Bullock, Ashley Capes, Emma Dalloway, Amelia Fielden, Jeffrey Harpeng, Mary Mageau, Joanna Preston, Patricia Prime, Duncan Richardson, Ynes Sanz and André Surridge.

Check out Modern Haibun & Tanka Prose online at

http://www.themetpress.com/modernhaibunandtankaprose/masthead.html

For more information, contact the editor, Jeffrey Woodward, at [email protected]

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:47 PM | Permalink

Deadline: In hand August 1, 2009

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

Eligibility: Open to everyone.

Entry Fee: None.

Rules: All tanka must be the entrant's original, unpublished work, and not under consideration by any publication or other contest.

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

Correspondence: Send #10 (4 1/8 x 9 1/2) SASE (outside US, SAE and 1 IRC) for notification of results. No entries will be returned.

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

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:35 PM | Permalink

Seven members of the SA Haiku Group met from 10 am to 1pm at the SA Writers Centre: Lynette Arden, Belinda Broughton, Dawn Colsey, Martina Taeker, Margaret Fensom, Ali El Bougrini, and Jill Gower.

Apologies were received from Alexander Ask, Alain Rozanès, Elsa Rozanès and Maeve Archibald.

As it was rather a wintry day and members attending had brought haiku they had written since the previous meeting, the group decided to stay in the SA Writers Centre and workshop the haiku. Members in turn wrote haiku on the whiteboard for discussion and suggestions. The meeting ended at around 1 pm.

by Lynette Arden

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:34 PM | Permalink

The winter meeting of the Red Dragonflies (akatombo) was held on 30th May at Dawn Bruce’s home in St Leonards. The group had planned a ginko in Dawn’s leafy garden but, due to inclement weather, the meeting was held indoors.

Vanessa Proctor led members, Beverley George, Barbara Fisher, Dawn Bruce and Cynthia Rowe in a productive afternoon. Leslie Walters sent her apologies.

The following haiku was inspired by the exercise (Red Dragonflies’ Winter Meeting 2008) – write a haiku using ‘winter solstice’:

warship
on the horizon...
winter solstice

Dawn Bruce

Lynx

XXIV:1 February 2009

report by Cynthia Rowe

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:26 PM | Permalink

To promote haiku writing as world literature, Ginyu Press holds its annual Ginyu Haiku prize. Results are announced in the (northern) autumn edition of Ginyu magazine. To see winners from previous years and for other details visit the site: http://www.geocities.jp/ginyu_haiku/ginyu.haiku.prize.htm

Ginyu editor Ban'ya Natsuishi is the judge.
Closes: September 10.
Cost: Free.
Send entries to Ginyu Press, 3-16-11 Tsurusenishi, Fujimi, Saitama 354-0026, Japan. Tel & fax: 81-49-252-9823 or email [email protected] (also use this address for any further information).

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:23 PM | Permalink

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE POSTMARKED BY OCT. 1, 2009

Categories: No limit on entries in either or both categories. All skill levels welcome.
Poetry up to 50 lines, any style or subject; line length may be edited to fit chapbook publication format

3-line haiku (need not conform to strict syllable count)

Contest does not accept simultaneous submissions or work previously published or having received awards in other competitions.

Prizes: Poetry $200, $60, $40; haiku, $100, $40, $20.
Top four winners in each category are published in the annual contest chapbook and mailed a complimentary copy. Selected finalists may also be published.

Entries: Submit 2 copies of poetry on 8-1/2x11 paper; haiku on 3x5 index cards.

One copy should show name, address, phone, email and source of contest info; 2nd copy should be anonymous for judging purposes. Include a brief bio with most recent or noteworthy awards and publications.

Notification: Winner and finalist notifications mailed no later than Dec. 30, 2009.

Winners list returned to entrants if SASE included. List posted to sponsor web site no later than Dec. 30, 2009.

Fees: $5 per poem; $3 per haiku in $US check, cash or money order. Mail entries, fees, SASE for winners’ list and book orders to :

TWA Penumbra, P. O. Box 3428, Tallahassee, FL 32315-3428

Judging: Judges are published, recognized poets and haiku experts.

Posted by Graham Nunn at 12:20 PM | Permalink

Kilmeny Niland is best remembered in Australia for her beautifully illustrated children's books.

She also practiced haiga. With the permission of Kilmeny's immediate family, American artist and haiku poet, Olga Hooper (Origa), has produced a fitting tribute to Kilmeny's haiku and haiga with examples of her work and links to other sources.

This commemorative page for Kilmeny is in the inaugural issue of Notes from the Gean accessible online at http://geantree.webs.com/inmemoriam.htm

It is well worth visiting.

Posted by Beverley George at 09:07 AM | Permalink