PRESS RELEASE

Modern English Tanka Press Announces Take Five : The Best  
Contemporary Tanka of 2008.

February 12, 2008 - Baltimore, MD

Modern English Tanka Press has announced a new anthology, Take Five :  
The Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008. This anthology, headed up by  
editor-in-chief, M. Kei, will review all tanka published in English  
during 2008 and make selections to showcase the breadth and quality  
of of English-language tanka poetry. The anthology will be published  
early in 2009 in both trade paperback and hardcover editions. It is  
expected to be an annual anthology showcasing each year's best tanka.

The anthology is the brainchild of M. Kei, well-known tanka poet and  
editor of Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern  
English Tanka. No stranger to anthology editing, M. Kei previously  
edited the ground-breaking and critically acclaimed anthology, Fire  
Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart in 2006. M. Kei heads  
up a team of editors, including Prof. Sanford Goldstein, tanka poet  
and co-translator of Japanese tanka poets for more than forty years;  
Pamela A. Babusci, an award-winning poet/artist, whose awards include  
the Museum of Haiku Literature, Yellow Moon, and Kokako competitions;  
Liam Wilkinson, curator of the 3LIGHTS Online Gallery of Haiku and  
Tanka and co-editor of Modern Haiga; Patricia Prime, co-editor of  
Kokako and reviews editor of Stylus (AUS) and Takahe (NZ); and Bob  
Lucky, poet, writer, and teacher.

Kei explained that the project would be different from existing tanka  
competitions because it is an anthology with editors, not a contest  
with judges. "Our goal is to showcase not only the best tanka being  
written and published in English today, but also to present  
excellence in anthology-making. We will not be voting on which tanka  
to include, but nominating tanka which we will discuss and debate  
amongst ourselves. We will select work that exemplifies both the best  
individual tanka and the best anthology we can produce, with due  
respect to the diversity of tanka in English around the world."

Editors and authors who wish to assure that their works published in  
2008 are reviewed by the editorial team may submit two copies of the  
work to:

Attn: Take Five
M. Kei, Editor-in-chief
P O Box 1118
Elkton, MD 21922-1118
Email: take5tanka [at] modernenglishtankapress [dot] com

Readers who wish to draw the board's attention to works they admire  
are also welcome to submit copies. All copies become the property of  
the Take Five editorial board and cannot be returned.  Please note,  
parcels which require a signature cannot be received. If you wish to  
receive an acknowledgment of your submission, please include a self-
addressed, stamped postcard with the package. International  
correspondents should send an IRC in lieu of stamps. Please inquire  
before making electronic submissions: unexpected attachments will be  
deleted.

(end)

Please forward to all interested persons.

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Editor, Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern  
English Tanka <AtlasPoetica.com>

Poet, Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay <Lulu.com/firepearls>

Editor, Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart <Lulu.com/
firepearls>

Moderator for Kyoka Mad Poems & Tanka Sequences

"Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear."-- Sappho

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