Welcome to the home page of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka.
Published by Modern English Tanka Press of Baltimore, Maryland, Atlas Poetica grew out of one of MET Press'
anthologies, Landfall:
Poetry of Place in Modern English Tanka. The anthology received an avalanche of submissions numbering in the thousands
making it the most sought after tanka venue in the English language. It was only logical to create a journal to provide
an ongoing forum for the publication, appreciation, and advancement of tanka poetry of place.
Major tanka poets, such as Takuboku in Japanese and Goldstein in English, have long advocated the importance of
autobiography in tanka, and tanka in English today carries an autobiographical assumption. Autobiography has the
virtue of focussing on the here and now as it is actually experienced, rather than as it is fantasized about from
a distance. Autobiography grounds poetic expression in lived experience and "keeps it real." However, if unchecked,
it can lead to a banal narcissism in which much is written but little is said.
Poetry of place expands the self to include the community and environment, both human and natural, through which the
poet travels. Groups and places have their biographies as well; they are not static non-entities but profoundly
important, affecting and effective boundaries of the poet's psyche. Whether contemplating subjects as diverse as an
old chest of drawers or a Canadian waterfall, poets find connection, meaning, and significance in the previously
unremarked proximities of our lives. Tanka poets of place are pushing tanka as a genre and poetry as a form into
new territories.
Even when chronicling the tribulations and disappointments of their lives, the tanka poets' intense awareness of
their participation in the world saves them from alienation. Not for them the mental absinthe of the post-modern poet
who believes that emotional baggage must always be packed with black. The poets of Atlas Poetica carry humor and
joy along with grief and loss; their baggage is as likely to reveal Hawaiian shirts and taffeta prom dresses as worn
flannels, funeral suits, and Italian sunglasses.
Atlas Poetica's covers provide a graphic depiction of our editorial attitude towards poetry of place:
the satellite photos were culled by scientists from their more prosaic applications. Although their purpose was
pragmatic and scientific, they could not help being moved by beauty. Thus the "Earth As Art" collection was born
to share dramatic, aesthetically satisfying satellite photographs free of charge to the general public.
Atlas Poetica is published twice a year, in the Spring and Autumn, and features approximately 500 poems per issue,
along with announcements, resources, articles, and other materials. It is an 8.5" x 11" print journal with a full color
cover, and also a PDF ebook and an online journal beginning with issue 3.
Submissions are currently open.
Atlas Poetica is accepting submissions from September 1 to November 30, 2008 for issue 3.
See the Submission Guidelines for full details.
The Editor
M. Kei crews aboard a skipjack, a traditional wooden sailboat used to fish for oysters in the Chesapeake Bay. He is the author
of Heron Sea, Short Poems of the Chesapeake Bay, and
the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, Fire Pearls:
Short Masterpieces of the Human Heart. His latest project is Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008, of
which he serves as founder and editor-in-chief. He has published more than 800 poems and scholarly articles in five languages
and ten countries. He also compiles the
Bibliography of English-Language Tanka.
See M. Kei's blog, Kujaku Poetry. {Offsite Link}
