NEW as of June 2011
A hand-made book by the artist Claire Dufresne with 62 bilingual haiku & tanka by JBLimited edition of eight copies
Read more about it on this web site
Manual update: July 2011
Co-editor of Take Five - tanka anthology 2011
Coeditor of Take Five - tanka anthology, volume 4, 2011, directed by M. Kei (US). Along with tanka colleagues Patricia Prime (N.-Z.), Magdalena Dale (Romania), Amelia Fielden (AUS/JP), Claire Everett (UK), Owen Bullock (N.-Z.), David Terelinck (AUS) and David Rice (US).Task: The editorial team reads, nominates and selects tanka published in English, in 2011, around the world… which amounts to nearly 20 000 tanka; only 300 of them will make it in the anthology which will be published in the Spring of 2012.
Manual update: June 2011
Canada-Japan Award 2010 for of souls and wings
JB, winner of the Canada-Japan Literary Award 2010 (French-language section) for her bilingual collection D’âmes et d’ailes /of souls and wings. For details about this Award, click below.To read the summary of the book, click on the Tanka section; the Jury's comments and the words of the Ambassador of Japan in Canada, ISHIKAWA Kaoru and the reviews and interviews, click on English Media; for English-speaking customers or a Press Service, click on Order form.
manual update: July 25, 2011
Click here...
Sappho
books
2011. T’aimer, voyager / To love you, to travel
Bilingual artist book (hand made) comprising 62 haiku and tanka by JB ; concept and 17 illustrations by Claire Dufresne.
Dedicated to Adena.
Limited edition of eight copies numbered and signed by the artist and the poet.
ISBN : 978-2-9812573-0-7 ; legal deposit: July 2011
Copies in the Conservation Collection at the Bibliothèque & Archives nationales du Québec in Montréal and at Library & Archives Canada in Ottawa.
Towards the end of November 2011, one may consult a copy of the book on site in the Diffusion Collection in the BAnQ in Montréal located at 2275 Holt Street.
Click here to see the Cover and the case T'aimer,voyager, To love you, to travel; and also the Production Sheet in French only
For more of Claire Dufresne’s art books and sculpture-books, please visit her bilingual gallery-workshop: Ming Virtual Gallery
2010. D'âmes et d'ailes/of souls and wings
This bilingual collection, a suite in seven movements containing 91 poems, deals with themes dear to tanka – a Japanese poem of 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7) arranged, in the West, on five lines: sapphic love, family, friendship, travel, aging, loneliness, the beyond. The parallels between the cycles of Nature and life are constant.
With sensitivity, tenderness and sincerity, Janick shares a Life’s journey similar to that of many contemporary women... despite its twists and turns.
of souls and wings is introduced with a HERstory of tanka since the 9th century. Ten poetesses and two women translators are honoured: in ancient Japan, from the era of Heian-kyō (794-1185): Ono no Komachi, Michitsuna’s Mother, Sei Shōnagon, Murasaki Shikibu, and Izumi Shikibu; and from the era of Kamakura (1185-1335): Abutsu-ni.
From 20th c.: YOSANO Akiko from Japan; Judith Gautier and Kikou YAMATA, two translators from France.
Then, the first French-language tanka poetess, Jehanne Grandjean (1880-1982).
Finally, two contemporary poetesses from Japan, TAWARA Machi and Mayu.
Cover: D’âmes et d’ailes/of souls and wings
Published in both English and French by Éditions du tanka francophone
To read all of the critics and comments on this very site,, please click on 'English Media'.
2003. Humeur… Sensibility… Alma… – haiku / tanka. Carte blanche, Montreal
Short poems portraying various moods: sexual, sensual, amorous, unfaithful?, tumultuous; epilogue included. A travel through sensibilities: instances of magic, lunar years, timeless memories.
75 poems in French including 15 translated into English (by Jo-Anne Elder and Jonathan Kaplansky) and 15 others in Spanish (by Rosa Batista); 5 illustrations by Diane Desmarais
JB: one of the winners of the Montreal 1st Festival of Edible Books. A poem by the author has inspired a pastry-chocolate student, Gabrielle Cadieux-Leblanc of the Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Québec.
1988. L’en-dehors du désir. Éditions du Blé, St-Boniface, MB.
55 short and longer poems including 5 illustrations by Diane Desmarais.
A lover’s journey in 5 positions.
1988. Guide to Gracious Lesbian Living. Lilith, Montreal
Collection of 12 short stories by 12 women authors among them a text-play by JB, Alice, Gertrude and Friends.
Abstract: 6 women friends, while dining, converse on separatist feminism.
Translation from French by Susanne de Lotbiniere-Harwood.
Front page illustration by Diane Desmarais
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