The Spring-time submission period for Catchment – Poetry of Place will remain open between 21st September and 21st November, towards release of the journal’s 5th issue online on 21st December, 2025.
As housed within the larger website for the Baw Baw Arts Alliance (on Gunaikurnai country, in south-east Victoria), guidelines can be accessed online.
Poets working within Japanese-based forms can offer either: up to 5 tanka of a stand-alone nature; or a string/ sequence of pieces, no larger than four (4) tanka in total. Contributors may also submit up to three (3) poems in free verse, each as long as 30 lines.
With our team still small, such work must come from Australian writers, showing a sense of place. A biographical statement (with no more than 50 words) should also be submitted towards each edition.
Beyond producing two issues per year, Catchment has expanded its range in recent months. Essays are being released each month which show appreciation for noteworthy poems of place (both in tanka and as free verse).
Just lately, our team has recorded readings of longer poems, selected from its first four issues. Being posted in sets of four from mid-September onwards, these will appear – on a fortnightly basis – until just before New Year.
Thanks to collaboration between Bbaa & 3BBR-FM, readings will also be broadcast on regional radio.
In 2026, such presentations could extend to tanka, including pieces from our 5th edition: our team encourages you to offer new work in coming weeks, towards this exciting possibility!
Rodney Williams
Editor
Catchment – Poetry of Place
Australian Haiku Society 