Category: Tanka in Australia

Bowerbird Tanka Workshop

The second Bowerbird Tanka workshop was held on 26th October, 2008 at Beverley George’s welcoming home at Pearl Beach, NSW.

The presenters, Beverley George and Amelia Fielden, led a most enthusiastic and creative group of thirteen women throughout the perfect spring day.
Workshopping began with prepared tanka on the theme sport/recreation/hobby or an interest which was followed by a highly informative talk by Amelia Fielden about shasei (sketching from life).After lunch on Beverley’s sun deck by the lagoon, we worked in pairs rising to the challenge of writing a responsive string using memories as a theme and incorporating the newly learnt shasei.

Atlas Poetica – 25 Australian Tanka

To view these poems visit http://AtlasPoetica.org and select Special Features.

Thank you to Atlas Poetica’s publisher and editor, M. Kei, for the invitation to participate and to Technical Director Alex von Vaupel for design and presentation.

The full press release from Atlas Poetica follows:

6 September 2010 — Perryville, Maryland, USA

*Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka*is
proud to announce ’25 Australian Tanka Poets,’ the fourth installment
of the ‘Special Features’ section of its website. Edited by Beverley George,
the well-known editor of *Eucalypt*, twenty-five Australian tanka poets each
wrote a new tanka representing the diverse landscapes of their country. By
bringing together poets from communities around the world, *Atlas Poetica’s
*Special Features allows different tanka traditions to be appreciated
for themselves as well as offering the opportunity to compare and
contrast them with other traditions. The Special Features can be viewed for
free online at <http://AtlasPoetica.org>

Bowerbird Tanka Workshop #4

held at ‘Wirraminna’ Pearl Beach, NSW

February 27th 2010

Nineteen Bowerbirds, including three presenters, gathered at Beverley George’s tranquil home, hoping to take away with them some inspiration and technical tips for writing better tanka.
Not a single bird returned home disappointed.

Amelia Fielden spoke about the tricky question of punctuation, sharing her views and style. She also included a valuable exercise which involved punctuating a number of tanka to improve them.

Kathy Kituai’s presentation, ‘Write Below the Surface’ prompted a lively discussion on a tanka written by Izumi Shikibu and an excellent exercise on listening to our own and other peoples’ poems.

Empty Garden

empty garden by Beverley George – reviews

There are now eight reviews of empty garden : Beverley George’s tanka collection, listed on www.eucalypt.info under empty garden. Four of these reviews may be accessed online. The two most recent reviews are by South African tanka poet, Maria Steyn, In Ribbons the journal of the Tanka Society of America and by Japanese poet, Aya Yuhki, in The Tanka Journal {Japan].

Eucalypt

Eucalypt: a tanka journal is the first Australian literary magazine devoted entirely to the 1300 year old genre from Japan which has so much relevance to the way we think and feel today. Information is available from www.eucalypt.info or by writing with an SSAE to Beverley George, Editor: Eucalypt, PO Box 37 Pearl Beach 2256 Australia