Thank you and Update to Keibooks

The following announcement was posted to Keibooks-Announce:


For all of you who have written your kind responses to my previous email, thank you very much. I am honored that Fire Pearls (Perryville: Keibooks) has gained a place in your hearts.

By now you may be aware of some other projects I have been working on, including last year's publication of my first collection Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay (Perryville: Keibooks), as well as the forthcoming Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka (Baltimore: Modern English Tanka Press), and now the forthcoming newest project, Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008 (Baltimore: Modern English Tanka Press).

Up until now I have utilized the link to make it as easy as possible to find Fire Pearls, but since I published a collection of my own last year and plan to publish additional books this year and next, I have changed the storefront's name to Keibooks. The new URL is: , effective immediately. Please update your bookmarks. As always, you can find the storefront by using Lulu's search box.

As always, you can find additional information about myself and my projects at my blog .

Cordially,

~K~

M. Kei
Publisher, Keibooks

Take Five : The Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008

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.

Update

A busy month. The proofreading for Atlas Poetica is done and she is going to print. We are on schedule for our March 1 debute. Buy at ModernEnglishTankaPress.com.

I have a new and special project in the works, but hush. That press release will come out later. You'll see.

Slow Motion my book of log poetry from my voyages on the Skipjack Martha Lewis last fall is coming along well. Tentative release date, April. More specifically, after I get my tax refund. Poetry doesn't pay, it costs. It will be coming out from Modern English Tanka Press.

This past week I was done with a nasty stomach bug. I was throwing up and having the runs. Throwing up is something that rarely happens to me. It means I'm very very ill. Throwing up so violently I hurt myself is a new and unpleasant development. I seem to be over the illness portion of the bug, but I'm still sore. I've missed most of work this week, which is bad. I'm a member of the working poor. Compensation is simple: if you work, you get paid. If you don't work, you don't get paid. What is this 'sick leave' people talk about?

Edwards has thrown in the towel. After reading Clinton and Obama's websites, I conclude that there's not much difference between them. A bleeding liberal like me ought to be giddy over having a woman or an African American to choose as serious contenders for president, but I don't agree with either of them about Iraq. Still, I expect I'll vote Obama as the person most likely to do me and other people with disabilities some good. Not that any of his proposed reforms will do me any personal good, but having been there before, I see very much that they need doing. Sadly, when used his website box to 'contribute your ideas to the Obama campaign', I immediately received a plea for money that showed not even a form letter response to my comments. So much for being a man of the people. Money is everything.

Will post more later when I get caught up, have time, and complete past due tasks that have been delayed by my illness.

~K~