Australian poet/ translator/ editor Amelia Fielden is helping to organise two tanka-related events in Canberra across the one weekend in the middle of October. The first will be a launch of the Australian/ Japanese anthology Poems to Wear, to be held at Manning Clark House in Forrest between 7-9 p.m. on Friday, 14 October. The second will be a Tanka Seminar, to be conducted at the Australian National University between 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, 15 October. Any enquiries should please be emailed to Amelia Fielden: anafielden@gmail.com
Category: Tanka in Australia
A Metaphor and a Milestone
The upstairs room of The Children’s Bookshop at Beecroft was filled to capacity on Saturday 28 May with an appreciative audience attending back-to-back afternoon events celebrating collaborative poetry and the tanka form.
In the first event Vanessa Proctor, President of the Australian Haiku Society, launched A Shared Umbrella. This joint project by Beverley George and David Terelinck is a collection of ten tanka sequences and thirteen rengay written over several years of collaboration.
Vanessa elaborated on the title metaphor, illustrated so enchantingly on the book cover by South African artist Tumi K. Steyn. The cover, in a pleasing shade of gold with autumnal notes, features a traditional Japanese umbrella, or wagasa. To quote Vanessa:
“To share such an umbrella with someone, you need to stand close in order to be able to share the space together, to walk in step. That walking in step is an art which Beverley and David have mastered beautifully.” Continue reading “A Metaphor and a Milestone”
Book Launch
‘A Shared Umbrella: the responsive tanka & rengay of Beverley George & David Terelinck’ will be launched by Vanessa Proctor, President of the Australian Haiku Society, at The Children’s Bookshop, 6 Hannah Street, Beecroft NSW (opposite Beecroft Station) on Saturday 28th May 2016 at 1 pm.
Following this, we will celebrate the launch by Michael Thorley of the 20th issue of ‘Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal’, Australia’s first publication for tanka only, edited by Beverley George. Poets whose work has appeared in ‘Eucalypt’ will be invited to read two of their own poems. RSVP editor@eucalypt.info or phone 0409 743 889
Report – Bowerbird Tanka Group meeting #14
The Bowerbird Tanka Group met on Saturday, March 12th, at Beverley George’s home
at Pearl Beach, New South Wales.
You can read a report of the day’s activities by Catherine Smith, as posted here on the “Eucalypt” website:
Tanka by Beverley George featured in Melbourne jazz performance
Earlier in December, leading Australian tanka poet Beverley George – editor of “Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal” – was honoured to have the following three pieces from her tanka collection “empty garden” featured in a live performance that formed part of the Melbourne Women’s Jazz Festival, held in Bennetts Lane, Melbourne:
a lightning strike
splits our old apple tree–
I never dreamed
the death that parted us
would not be one of ours
it’s in our garden
that I miss you most
each year the stems
of rosemary you planted
grow harder to cut back
widening each day
the winter river rushes
over hidden rocks
if you asked me to return
I could no longer cross it
Subsequently included on a CD, Beverley’s tanka were read live by Miriam Zolin, accompanied by a jazz trio comprised by pianist Andrea Keller, bassist Tamara Murphy and trumpeter Eugene Ball.
A review of this performance can be accessed at the following link:
“Eucalypt” Issue 19, 2015 – Appraisals
From every issue of “Eucalypt: a tanka journal,” edited by Beverley George, two poems are peer-selected for appraisal.
Congratulations to Jenny Ward Angyal and Sonam Chhoki, whose tanka were chosen for appraisal by Patricia Prime and Anne Curran.
You can read about them here:
http://www.eucalypt.info/E-awards.html
While visiting the site, you may also wish to read a wide selection of tanka appraisals at:
http://www.eucalypt.info/E-bowerbird.html
A regular feature of the full-day Bowerbird workshops, convened twice a year, is a presentation by each of three delegates of a tanka by a poet whom the presenter has never met. The appraisals are lively and varied.
“Eucalypt” Issue 18, 2015 – Appraisals
From every issue of “Eucalypt: a tanka journal”, edited by Beverley George, two poems are peer-selected for appraisal.
Congratulations to New Zealand poets, Patricia Prime and Anne Curran, whose tanka were selected for appraisal by Sylvia Florin.
You can read about them here:
While visiting the site, you may also wish to read a wide selection of tanka appraisals at:
http://www.eucalypt.info/E-bowerbird.html
A regular feature of the full-day Bowerbird workshops, convened twice a year, is a presentation by each of three delegates of a tanka by a poet whom the presenter has never met. The appraisals are lively and varied.
– Beverley George
Bowerbird Tanka Workshop #13 – 14 March 2015
The 13th Bowerbird Tanka Workshop – held at Pearl Beach (NSW) on 14 March 2015 – was attended by 19 delegates from Sydney, the Newcastle area, Canberra and Tamworth.
You can read a report of the programme and three appraisals of favourite tanka through accessing this link.
Australian Haiku Society 