Level: Beginners/Intermediate.
Format: Asynchronous, writing in your own time - no fixed time video elements.
No. of Assignments and Feedback: 3
Group Size: Up to 5
Course Description: This course, looking at the five-line Japanese poetry form tanka is suitable for those looking to begin or to build their tanka experience. The course includes an optional exercise process to help with your tanka structure and content, but more confident writers can work directly with the prompts for new work. If you already write longform poetry, then tanka is a good introduction to the Japanese forms, as there is room for a little more lyricism here than there is in haiku. The course feedback is sent by email, with participants reading Alan's commentary on each others' poems as well as their own in a group learning process. Introductory materials, including a first writing prompt, are accessed on the start date. Participants submit two poems three times over each course (total 6 poems per course) and can also add a couple of rewritten poems for final comments during that time.
Lead Tutor for haiku; tanka; haibun; senryu; and tanka stories.
Alan is a Japan Times award-winning writer, and multi-award winning poet for haiku, plus a Pushcart Prize, and Best Small Fictions nominated poet for haibun.
He’s been President of the United Haiku & Tanka Society (2017 to 2021), and General Secretary of the British Haiku Society (1998-2000).
Alan holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University (U.K. 2007-2008), and a Diploma for Creative Writing from the University of Bristol (U.K. 2000-2001).
In September 2015 NHK TV of Japan made a documentary about Alan's work: http://tinyurl.com/NHKHaikuJourney
Alan’s work regularly appears in haikai genre journals, and prominent anthologies, including Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W. W. Norton 2013).
He has extensive experience as a tutor and workshop facilitator in both live and online settings. Alongside this he’s also an experienced editor for anthologies and journals. Alan’s been an essayist, article writer, critic, book reviewer, international competition judge, co-founder, and founder of various haiku & haibun journals.
Alan is currently editor-in-chief for The Haiku Reader anthology series, and opened with the first presentation at the Haiku Society of America’s 2022 National Virtual Conference (Saturday, June 4, 2022) taking questions about the anthology.
Full Cost: £185
Early Bird Rate: £165 if booking by the end of 15th April 2024)