Ahoy the shore!

I am posting this from my brand new little netbook while aboard the Kalmar Nyckel, the tall ship of Delaware wherein I am a member of the crew. I'm sitting near one of the few available electrical outlets belowdecks, which also means I am sitting just outside the splatter range of the water leaking down around the capstan. It's a steady rain here and the temperature is right at that point where a jacket is too hot but going without it means getting wet. In a few minutes I'll be going above decks for mooring training.

It's very inconvenient to type and navigate on these tiny little buttons, so don't expect prompt or long responses to comments, queries, or emails. In the mean time, I give you my website with pictures I've taken of the ship (and the ship's cats): picasaweb.com/kujakupoet

Enjoy.

~K~

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume Two (2009) Completed

April 25, 2010

The editorial team of Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume Two, have completed the editorial process. Final selections have been made and the manuscript is now being prepared for publication. It will be available for sale through the MET Press bookstore in May, 2010.

The editorial team consisting of M. Kei, editor-in-chief (USA), Sanford Goldstein (JP), Patricia Prime (NZ), Kala Ramesh (IN), Alexis Rotella (USA), and Angela Leuck (CAN), read all contemporary tanka published in English during 2009 totaling more than sixteen thousand poems. Sources ranged from tanka journals to social media to musical performances to chapbooks and many other formats. The result is Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume Two, showcasing tanka, tanka prose, and tanka sequences by 140 poets from more than a dozen countries, with cover art by Alexis Rotella. 

Congratulations to all the poets! It is your hard work and talent that make editing the Take Five anthology series such a rewarding challenge.

Poets appearing in Take Five, Volume Two:

A. A. Marcoff

A. Thiagarajan

Adelaide B. Shaw

ai li

Alex von Vaupel

Alexis Rotella

Amelia Fielden

An Xiao

an'ya

Ana-Maria DiVera

André Surridge

Andrew Cook-Jolicoeur

Andrew Riutta

Angela Leuck

Annette Mineo

Audrey Olberg

Aurora Antonovic

Aya Yuhki

Barbara Strang

Becky DeVito

Belinda Broughton

Bell Gale Chevigny

Beverley George

Bob Lucky

C. W. Hawes

C. William Hinderliter

Carol Raisfeld

Carole MacRury

Carolyn Eldridge-Alfonzetti

Carolyn Thomas

Cathy Drinkwater Better

Chad Lee Robinson

Chen-ou Liu

Cherie Hunter Day

Claudia Coutu-Radmore

Colin Stewart Jones

Collin Barber

Cor van den Heuvel

Curtis Dunlap

Cynthia Rowe

Dave Bacharach

Dave Bachelor

David Lee Kirkland

David Rice

David Terelinck

Dawn Bruce

Deborah P. Kolodji

Denis M. Garrison

Don Miller

Dorothy McLaughlin

Elaine Riddell

Ferris Gilli

Francis Masat

Gautam Nadkarni

Geert Verbeke

George Swede

H. Gene Murtha

J. Andrew Lockhart

Jade Pandora

James Tipton

Jane Reichhold

Janet Lynn Davis

Jared Carter

Jean LeBlanc

Jeanne Emrich

Jeffrey Woodward

Jo McInerney

Joanne Morcom

John Martell

John Quinnett

Joyce Sandeen Johnson

June Moreau

Kala Ramesh

Karen Cesar

Kathy Kituai

Kathy Lippard Cobb

Kirsty Karkow

Kisaburo Konoshima

Kozue Uzawa

Kris Lindbeck

Larry Kimmel

Laurence Stacey

Lenard D. Moore

LeRoy Gorman

Liam Wilkinson

Linda Galloway

Linda Jeannette Ward

Lois Harvey

Lorelei Jolie Polden

M. Kei

M. L. Grace

M. L. Harvey

Magdalena Dale

Margaret Chula

Margarita Engle

Maria Steyn

Marian Morgan

Marilyn Hazelton

Marilyn Potter

Mark Rutter

Mary Mageau

Max Ryan

Megan Arkenberg

Melissa Dixon

Michael Ketchek

Michael McClintock

Miriam Sagan

Natalia L. Rudychev

Owen Bullock

Pamela A. Babusci

Pamela Cooper

Pamela Miller Ness

Patricia Prime

Patrick M. Pilarski

Paul O. Williams

Paul Smith

Peggy Heinrich

Philip Miller

Philomene Kocher

R. K. Singh

Randy Brooks

Raquel D. Bailey

Reiko Nakagawa

robert d. wilson

Robert Kusch

Roberta Beary

Roger Jones

Ruth Holzer

Sanford Goldstein

Sean Greenlaw

stanley pelter

Susan Marie La Vallee

Terry Ann Carter

Tess Driver

Thelma Mariano

Tom Clausen

Vasile Moldovan

William Hart

William I. Elliott

Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume Two, is published by MET Press of Baltmore, Maryland, USA, and will be available for sale through the MET Press bookstore in May, 2010.

MET Press (Modern English Tanka Press)

For questions or comments about Take Five, contact editor-in-chief, M. Kei, at: take5tanka (at) gmail (dot) com. 

10% Discount on Keibooks During April

If you have been planning to buy a copy of Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka (AtlasPoetica.org), or my new novel Pirates of the Narrow Seas (NarrowSeas.blogspot.com), or one of my previous titles, such as Fire Pearls : Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart or Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, April is the month to do it!

Lulu.com, home to Keibooks, is offering a special coupon for a discount of 10% off the cover price of one purchase. Visit http://stores.Lulu.com/Keibooks and at check out, enter the code 'SHOWERS'. You may use it once during the month of April for a single purchase. Discount applies to book cover price, and does not include the cost of shipping and handling. The coupon can only be used for a single purchase, but you can buy as many books or journals as you wish in that purchase.

Happy reading!

~K~