About Us
The mission of Modern English Tanka Press is to promote the tanka form of poetry, to educate newcomers to tanka about the form's history and
future, techniques and uses, and to work for wider publication of tanka in both specialty and mainstream poetry venues.
In order to accomplish this mission, Modern English Tanka Press published the quarterly journal of western tanka,
Modern English Tanka from 2006 through 2009, and special edition books
of tanka and related subjects.
Furthermore, Tanka Central is the internet megasite for tanka.
Denis M. Garrison, a longtime online literary magazine editor and publisher and a member of the
Tanka Society of America,
Tanka Canada, and
Anglo-Japanese Tanka Society, operates Tanka Central in order to
promote the tanka form and wider publication of tanka in both specialty and mainstream poetry venues.
Denis M. Garrison lives near Maryland's Chesapeake Bay with his wife, Deborah. In the 1970s, he edited Towson University’s
literary magazine and taught creative writing for Johns Hopkins University’s Free University. His poetry is published in
Poetry Scotland, Ribbons, Tangled Hair, Eucalypt, Magnapoets, red lights, Nightingale, Trilopia, Simply Haiku, Moonset,
Wisteria, Roadrunner, Verse Libre Quarterly, Stirring, World Haiku Review, Haiga Online, and many others,
and in his books, Eight Shades of Blue (haiku), Hidden River (haiku), Fire Blossoms: The Birth of Haiku Noir,
Sailor in the Rain and Other Poems, a volume of formal and free verse, and First Winter Rain: Selected Tanka from 2006-2010. His poetry is anthologized in
May Dazed, Poets Gone Wild, The Five-Hole Flute, Fire Pearls. The Dreaming Room,
Sixty Sunflowers,, Landfall, and Ash Moon Anthology.
He's edited Modern English Tanka, Concise Delight, Modern Haiga, Ambrosia: Journal of Fine Haiku, Haiku Harvest, Ku Nouveau, Haiku Noir, Templar Phoenix, Haiku Cycles, Gunpowder River Poetry,
Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, and Loch Raven Review.
Copyright © 2006-2010 by Modern English Tanka Press.
