2018 Goldstein Contest Guidelines

How to Enter the Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

The 19th Tanka Society of America Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest: Call for Submissions

Learn more about Sanford Goldstein, for whom this contest is named.

Submission Window: April 1 through May 31, 2018 (in-hand deadline).

Eligibility: Open to all, members and nonmembers alike, except TSA officers and judges.

Regulations: Any number of tanka may be submitted. Entries must be original, in English, unpublished, and not simultaneously submitted for publication or to any other contest. Poems posted to Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites, or public online discussion lists are not eligible for submission.

Entry Fee: $1.00 per tanka, U.S. funds only. Please send checks/money orders made payable to “Tanka Society of America” or cash in U.S. dollars (at your own risk). Mail to the contest coordinator at the address listed below (see “Postal Submissions”).

Or, to pay by PayPal, click the following PayPal button. Enter the number of dollars that matches the number of poems you’re submitting. (Do not pay to join TSA or renew your membership with this payment; please do that separately on our How to Join or Renew page.) Note that PayPal charges a fee for online payments, which TSA is absorbing. If you wish to help offset these fees, feel free to include an extra dollar with your payment. Please confirm in the email with your submissions that you’ve paid or will pay via PayPal (and also indicate if you've included any extra money to offset PayPal charges).

[PayPal button removed]

Email Submissions (preferred): When submitting by email, please type or paste your tanka in the body of the message and write “TSA Contest Entries—[your name]” in the subject line. Include your name, address, email address, phone number, and method/date of payment above your group of tanka. (If you are concerned about any special formatting characteristics, you may add a brief note after each applicable poem. Please do not number your tanka.) Send to the contest coordinator, Susan Burch, at sehbtree@yahoo.com.

Postal Submissions: When submitting by postal mail, please type or neatly print your tanka on one or more sheets of letter-size paper. Include your name, address, email address (if applicable), and phone number in the top left-hand corner of each page. (Note that all poems will be incorporated into an electronic file and then “shuffled” for anonymous judging.) Mail along with fees to the contest coordinator:

Susan Burch

9128 Cool Hollow Terrace

Hagerstown, MD 21740 USA

We will make every effort to acknowledge receipt of entries via email, provided you include an email contact address with your submission. If you have not received a response within two or three weeks, please contact the contest coordinator at sehbtree@yahoo.com.

Awards: First Prize: $100; Second Prize: $50; Third Prize: $25. Prize amounts may be reduced if insufficient entries are received.

Bonus: Through a random drawing, one person who enters the TSA tanka contest will receive a free year of TSA membership. A winner will be announced when contest results are announced.

Announcements: Winners will be personally contacted if contact information has been provided. Winning tanka and judges’ comments will be published on this website (see past winners and commentary), the TSA Facebook page, and in our journal, Ribbons.

Adjudication: The judges for this year’s contest are Jessica Malone Latham and Neal Whitman.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication on this website, on Facebook, and in Ribbons.

We look forward to receiving your entries! If you have any questions, please contact the contest coordinator, Susan Burch, at sehbtree@yahoo.com.