Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

Australian poet, Amelia Fielden, has a Master of Arts degree in Japanese Literature, and is a professional translator who also writes original English verse in the traditional Japanese tanka form. Specializing currently in the work of contemporary Japanese women poets, Amelia has translated sixteen such collections to date. In 2007 she was awarded the Donald Keene Prize For Translation of Japanese Literature by Columbia University, USA, for Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Japanese Tanka (Cheng & Tsui, Boston). Amelia's own tanka have been widely published in journals and anthologies,and awarded internationally. Six collections of her original poetry have appeared between 2002 and 2010, the most recent of them being Baubles, Bangles & Beads (2007) and Light On Water (2010). Also published in 2010 was Weaver Birds, a bilingual collaborative tanka diary created by Amelia and Japanese born Canberra poet, Saeko Ogi.

Poet, diarist, founder and facilitator of Limestone Tanka Poets, Kathy Kituai has facilitated creative writing workshops in Australia and Scotland. Her numerous commendations include two Canberra Critics Circle Awards, St Kilda Poetry Award, Banjo Patterson Poetry Award, Somerset National Poetry Prize, Tea Towel Tanka Award, Fuji Award, and an Arts ACT Award to work in Scotland, which inspired this book. Kathy has worked with dancers, visual artists, a musician, a potter, and is published in Japan, UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, PNG and Australia. President and Vice President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (1987-1990), Kathy was also an editor for the Institute of PNG Studies and Muse magazine, a peer panelist for Arts ACT, and on the steering committee for the Weereewa Festival. She has judged  literary competitions over the years, the latest being the Brockman Poetry Competition for Manning Clark House, 2013.