Bio
Deborah P Kolodji, a haiku poet from Southern California, and Mariko Kitakubo, a tanka poet from Tokyo, started writing
Tan-ku sequences and sets during the pandemic when they were both unable to travel to poetry readings, conferences, and events.
Mariko writes a tanka and Deborah responds with a haiku or vice versa. The sets have one haiku/tanka each, and they have also
written longer sequences of six links or even ten. To date, they have written 75 of these Tan-ku sets and sequences.
Mariko Kitakubo has published six books of tanka including three bilingual ones, "On This Same Star," "Cicada Forest,"
and "INDIGO." Mariko is an experienced performer who has presented her poetry on at least 234 occasions, 177 of them overseas,
in 51 different cities on 5 different continents. She hopes to encourage more poetry lovers worldwide to appreciate and practice tanka.
https://www.en.kitakubo.com
Deborah P Kolodji is the California Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. Her first full-length book of haiku and senryu,
"highway of sleeping towns," won a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award from the Haiku Foundation. Her recent e-chapbook, "tug of a black hole,"
is available as a free download from
Title IX Press (Now Moth Orchid Press)