Embedded Files
Tanka Society of America
April 6, 2025 on Zoom
2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time
The Tanka Society of America held its inaugural meeting on April 15, 2000, at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. The meeting, convened by TSA founder Michael Dylan Welch, set an agenda for supporting and celebrating tanka poetry in the United States. We immediately started the TSA Newsletter, edited by Pamela Miller Ness, and inaugurated the annual TSA International Tanka Contest, first judged by Naomi Y. Brown and David Rice (the first place winner was Edward J. Rielly). The 96 members joining by the end of the year 2000 were considered charter members. From this beginning we have grown to establish a website, publish our tanka journal, Ribbons (started and first edited by an’ya), maintain a vibrant social media presence, rename our contest for Sanford Goldstein, convene numerous tanka conferences, start our online journal, Laurels (first edited by Richard L. Matta), initiate a yearly mentorship program, and publish usually annual members’ anthologies, the first one being Castles in the Sand in 2002 (edited by Michael Dylan Welch). Please join our 25th anniversary celebration event on Zoom as we acknowledge our history and look forward to our next 25 years.
See RED ITEMS below to prepare for this meeting (optional). We look forward to your attendance!
Zoom Link
Tanka Society of America 25th Anniversary Meeting
Time: April 6, 2025, 02:00 p.m. Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82708424064?pwd=cp2xUEoBRn3fbdChQSGIJG8FUs3ant.1
Meeting ID: 827 0842 4064
Passcode: 650736
Pacific Time Activity
2:00 p.m. Gathering and conversation
2:05 p.m. Welcome by Kathabela Wilson, TSA president
2:10 p.m. Introduction of the 2025–26 TSA board (with one tanka each)
2:25 p.m. PREPARE: Round of attendee introductions (one tanka each; optional)
2:55 p.m. Breakout rooms (social time)
3:05 p.m. Break
3:10 p.m. Description of society founding and its inaugural meeting, and accomplishments since then, by Michael Dylan Welch, TSA founder
3:25 p.m. “My Time as President,” including memories of Tanka Sunday 2013, by Margaret Chula, former TSA president
3:50 p.m. Break
4:00 p.m. Presentation by Kazuaki Wakui on the Goldstein Museum in Japan
4:30 p.m. Impressions of the Tanka Cafe by Marilyn Shoemaker Hazelton, former TSA president
4:40 p.m. Thoughts on the Tanka Cafe by Kathabela
4:45 p.m. Goldstein memorial reading, led by Kathabela and Ken Slaughter (poems from the Ribbons memorial for Sanford Goldstein)
4:55 p.m. Memorial reading for other members who have died in the last two years, led by Michael
PREPARE (optional): Consider sharing a tanka by or for a deceased tanka poet, limited to those who have died in the last two years.
4:55 p.m. Break
5:00 p.m. Announcements:
Goldstein Contest—Roy Kindelberger (due April 1 to May 31)
Upcoming deadlines—Susan Weaver: Ribbons, Laurels, Tanka Hangout (all due by June 30)
Mentorship program update—Theresa Cancro
25th Anniversary Tanka Prose Contest—Theresa (due June 1 to July 31, with John Budan as judge)
2024 anthology update—Susan (with an update from Michele L. Harvey, editor of Each in Our Own Way)
2025 anthology—Susan (due July 15 to August 31, with Michelle Brock as editor)
Tanka Monday on September 29 in San Francisco—Michael
Kizuna tan-ku journal—Mariko Kitakubo
Other member announcements
5:20 p.m. PREPARE (optional): Anonymous workshop (submit no more than TWO unpublished tanka by April 5, 2025
using our submission form), facilitated by Michael (we’ll get to the second submission if time allows)
6:25 p.m. Gratitude by Kathabela Wilson
6:30 p.m. Casual conversations to end
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