The Five-Hole Flute: Modern English Tanka in Sequences and Sets Published by Modern English Tanka Press
Called a “groundbreaking collection” by Jeffrey Woodward, in his review in Lynx, Modern English Tanka Press’ anthology, The Five-Hole Flute: Modern English Tanka in Sequences and Sets, showcases new directions in short verse based on the ancient Japanese poetic genre, tanka. This, the first in a series of tanka anthologies to be published by MET Press, illuminates the possibilities of assembling the five-line tanka in sets and sequences.
Baltimore, Maryland – December 21, 2006 – The Five-Hole Flute: Modern English Tanka in Sequences and Sets affords the reader an impressively compact and rich overview of modern tanka, cinquain, and haiku, and of the changing shape and power of these forms when arranged in sets and sequences. It is edited by the team of Denis M. Garrison and Michael McClintock, the editors of the quarterly journal, Modern English Tanka.
The works in this exemplary collection offer a glimpse into the extraordinary diversity and sometimes startling richness of the modern short poem in English, and disclose a fascinating but hitherto concealed dimension of literary creativity: the integration of autonomous short poems into new, coherent, interactive patterns that break free of the conventional stanzaic forms of longer narrative, epic, and lyrical verse. Several techniques are illustrated—including anaphora, thematic linking, antiphonal response, and more—demonstrating the manifold possibilities for grouping tanka, cinquain, and haiku in compositions that convey an expanded poetic experience, a compound literature having broad scope and unlimited potential for dealing with the many layers and complexities of human experience, thought, and emotion.
Resonant with the breadth and vision of literary collage, mural, and existential mandala, the short form poets of the twenty-first century reveal cultural and artistic roots not only in the ancient Japanese waka/tanka tradition, but equally in the subjective realism of the Impressionist painters and the short works of such Imagist poets as Adelaide Crapsey, the early Ezra Pound, T. E. Hulme, Amy Lowell, H.D, and Wallace Stevens.
“The Five-Hole Flute is a book beautiful in every way, the promise of the covers’ enticing colors being richly fulfilled on page after page. In this treasure of magnificent poems the reader is delighted to discover so many approaches—some direct, some subtle—to the intertwining of five-line insights, observations, revelations. The collection carries the modern English tanka several major steps along its path to recognition as an essential and valued part of contemporary Western literature.” -- Carol Purington
“This is an attractive volume, inside and out. It is pleasing to the eye, and to the hand. In short, I can highly recommend this book. Every time I go back to it, I find something else to think about; to explore; to enjoy; to try. A different voice; a new form; a way of connecting the past with the here and now.” -- Johnye Strickland, in her review in Simply Haiku
“Michael McClintock, in an ‘Afterword…’ to The Five-Hole Flute, proposes as ‘the singular niche and role’ of tanka in English its potential ‘…to introduce into English literature a kind of short poetry that fully measures up to the achievements of the more traditional, longer poetic forms. Tanka appears ready to accomplish this by, first, peeling away the extraneous, and non-essential and, secondly, unlike the haiku, with its inherent and peculiar limitations, by giving full play to the majority of devices available for poetic expression in English’ (p. 100). The Five-Hole Flute, with 33 sequences by a baker’s dozen of contributors, fairly demonstrates McClintock’s optimism for the growth of this genre. Diversity in structure is everywhere in evidence with collaborative sequences by two and three poets, cinquain sequences, composite tanka and haiku sequences and even tanka ‘sonnets.’” -- Jeffrey Woodward, in his review in Lynx
For media inquiries or to arrange interviews, contact the publisher by e-mail at dmg (at) tankapress (dot) com. Publisher information at: www.modernenglishtankapress.com.
This book is available from www.Lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from major booksellers; or by order from the publisher. Complete information and mail order form are available online at www.modernenglishtankapress.com. Price: $13.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-3794-0. Trade paperback. 116 pages, 6.00" x 9.00", perfect binding, 60# cream interior paper, black and white interior ink, 100# exterior paper, full-color exterior ink.
About Modern English Tanka Press:
Modern English Tanka Press is an independent equity publishing house in Baltimore, Maryland, dedicated to producing books and periodicals of lasting literary value. A family business, we treat our customers and partners in publishing like family. Our publications are produced using modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. We publish tanka, haiku, and other fine poetry.
Our special mission is to promote the tanka form of poetry, to educate newcomers to tanka about this most ancient poetic form, and to work for wider publication of tanka in both specialty and mainstream poetry venues. To those ends, we publish the journal “Modern English Tanka” and special edition books of tanka, haiku, and other fine verse. We operate www.TankaCentral.com, the internet megasite for tanka, with its popular “Tanka News” blog, and the poetry web hub, www.ShortVerse.com.
Contact:
Denis M. Garrison, owner
Modern English Tanka Press
443-802-1249
Email to dmg (at) tankapress (dot) com.
www.modernenglishtankapress.com www.modernenglishtanka.com
www.shortverse.com www.tankacentral.com www.tankanews.com
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