2020 Goldstein Contest Guidelines

2020 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest Guidelines

The 21st 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, 2020 (in-hand deadline).

Eligibility: Open to all, members and nonmembers alike, except Tanka Society of America officers and judges.

Entry Fees: None. In honor of the TSA’s 20th anniversary the contest is FREE this year. You may enter up to seven tanka. Donations are welcome, however.

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Submissions: Please use the online submission form. You may submit up to seven tanka. If more than seven poems are entered, only the first seven will be considered. Please also submit your name, address, email, and phone number. Entries must be original, in English, unpublished, and not simultaneously submitted for publication or to any other contest. Poems posted on public Facebook pages, blogs, or other websites are not eligible for submission. By submitting, you assert that your entries are previously unpublished and are solely your own original creations. If you submit using the online submission form (see below), please do NOT also email any submissions—use one submission method only.

• Online Form Submissions (preferred): Please use our online submission form and enter your name, address, email, phone number, and up to seven poems. After you submit, the submission form will display a confirmation notice; you will not receive any email confirmation.

• Email Submissions: We strongly prefer that you submit using our online submission form, but if it does not work correctly for you, you may submit by email. When submitting by email, please type or paste up to seven previously unpublished tanka in the body of the message (no attached files) and write “Goldstein Tanka Contest Entries—[your name]” in the subject line. Include your name, address, email address, and phone number. If you are concerned about any special formatting characteristics, you may add a brief note after each applicable poem. Please do not number your poems. Send by May 31, 2020 to the contest coordinator, Susan Burch, at sehbtree@yahoo.com.

• Postal Submissions: If neither the online form or email submissions are possible for you, please submit up to seven previously unpublished poems on one 8.5x11-inch or A4 sheet of paper (all poems on one sheet; do not use other sizes of paper or index cards). Please submit one copy with your name, address, email address (if you have one), and phone number. If you can’t type the poems, please print them legibly (no cursive handwriting or calligraphy). There is no need to send another copy without author identification for anonymous judging because all poems submitted by postal mail will be incorporated into an electronic file and then “shuffled” for anonymous judging. Submit your entries to be received (in hand) by May 31, 2020, to:

Susan Burch

9128 Cool Hollow Terrace

Hagerstown, MD 21740 USA

Awards: $100 for first prize, $50 for second prize, and $25 for third prize, plus honorable mentions.

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 after contest results are announced.

Announcements: Winners will be announced in August 2020. Winning tanka and judges’ comments will be published on the TSA website (see past winners and commentary), the TSA Facebook page, the TSA Twitter and Tumblr accounts, and in our journal, Ribbons.

Adjudication: The judges for this year’s contest are Margaret Dornaus and Claire Everett (click to see bios and photos).

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication on this website, on social media, 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, or website administrator, Michael Dylan Welch, at WelchM@aol.com.