Five Lines Down: A Landmark in English Tanka Published by Modern English Tanka Press

Modern English Tanka Press is pleased to announce the publication of Five Lines Down: A Landmark in English Tanka. The book is a complete compilation of the four issues of this seminal journal of tanka in English, originally edited by Kenneth Tanemura and Sanford Goldstein. The original journal had a small run and is now very hard to find.

Baltimore, Maryland – July 25, 2007 – Five Lines Down: A Landmark in English Tanka is a compilation of all four issues of the landmark journal of tanka poetry in English FIVE LINES DOWN published 1994-1996 and edited by Kenneth Tanemura and Sanford Goldstein. Modern English Tanka Press is pleased to make this seminal journal once again available to tanka aficionados and scholars around the world. The complete issues are included along with an Introduction by Michael McClintock.

About Five Lines Down:

“Five Lines Down was the first journal devoted exclusively to English-language tanka. An interesting, if brief, attempt at pointing a spotlight on tanka, it emerged in 1994 as part of the first sustained exploration of tanka in English. While some of its baby steps were sometimes shaky, they were encouraging and optimistic steps towards a maturing art form. The journal was surely one of the several building blocks that helped facilitate the formation, in 2000, of the Tanka Society of America. The republication of Five Lines Down is a window into the burgeoning tanka world where both formative and significantly mature poems were showcased in a respected journal that ended much too soon.” — Michael Dylan Welch, founder of the Tanka Society of America

“I celebrated the news that Kenneth Tanemura and Sanford Goldstein had teamed up to launch a new magazine called Five Lines Down, because I knew that this would be a magazine that would champion an expansive approach to English-language tanka. And as each issue came out, the editors showed us by example after example that tanka can take a variety of forms, a wide range of human experiences, and an introspective psychological eye into the heart of our darkest and lightest emotions. This was an English-language tanka magazine that was aware of the modernist and post-modernist Japanese tanka poets, encouraging us to write our lives in five lines down.” — Dr. Randy Brooks, Millikin University

“Five Lines Down was the next step in the English-language tanka movement—a journal that only accepted tanka! Five Lines Down’s individual tanka, tanka strings (aka sequences), collaborative tanka, commentary, and book reviews, plus its open spirit to all the possibilities of the tanka form, are the threads we continue to weave into our modern English tanka cloth. The journal ended too soon but there is no end to five lines down.” — David Rice

“I first became interested in tanka through Kenneth Tanemura’s kind friendship, back in 1994. He guided me in my reading of tanka books. I immediately was drawn to this elegant poetry form and have been in love with tanka ever since. Five Lines Down was a perfect publishing venue for tanka poets, a wonderful and powerful tanka journal. I, as many tanka poets throughout the world, still miss Five Lines Down.” — Pamela A. Babusci (Award-winning tanka poet)

“What I remember most about Five Lines Down is how much I missed it when it was gone. I missed the poems and the articles about Tanka. More than any other source, Five Lines Down stimulated my thinking and helped shape my views on how to write Tanka.” — Michael Ketchek

For media inquiries or to arrange an interview, see the publisher information below.

This book is available from http://stores.lulu.com/modernenglishtanka and from major booksellers; or from the publisher. Complete information and mail order form are available online at www.modernenglishtankapress.com.

Price: $18.95 USD. ISBN 978-0-6151-5621-7. Trade paperback. 160 pages, 6.00" x 9.00", perfect binding, black and white interior ink, 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. Our publications are produced using modern print-on-demand production and distribution methods. We publish the journal “Modern English Tanka” and books of tanka, haiku, and other fine verse. We operate www.TankaCentral.com 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.com.
www.modernenglishtankapress.com www.modernenglishtanka.com
www.shortverse.com www.tankacentral.com www.tankanews.com

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