Sunflower Tanka will open for submissions from July 15 through August 31, 2026. A post from this site will notify readers of the theme on July 15, 2026.

Please follow this site to receive notifications.

Poems received outside the submission period will not be considered. Thank you.

PLEASE NOTE: Using AI to write your poetry goes against our publishing standards. We cannot accept AI-generated poetry. Do not rewrite your poetry using AI such as ChatGPT or other AI types of AI. If you send us AI-generated poetry, it will be rejected.

Amazon allows us to use Grammarly, Pro Writing Aid, Canva, LanguageTool, etc., for spelling and minor editing. Please let us know what program you used. We must declare these writing aids to Amazon at the time of publication.

Please submit 3 poems. You can submit any combination of forms, but only submit one taiga poem per poet.

We’re looking for tanka (5/7/5/7/7), tanka prose, and experimental tanka—s/l/s/l/l, tanka series Rensaku, taiga (tanka on a black-and-white photo), bussokusekika (5/7/5/7/7/7), and experimental tanka (garland tanka, tanka Puente, etc.) written in the English language on the current theme in an email.

We’d like to publish tanka and tanka prose, from the traditional to the experimental. All poems must be your own original work. Please submit only once per submission period.

Please do not submit previously published tanka/tanka prose. Every journal has a different definition of what “published” means. This is our definition:

🌻 If a poem has been published in another journal or on a blog, we consider the poem as published, so please don’t send it to Sunflower Tanka. In addition, if a poem appeared in a self-published poetry book, don’t send it to Sunflower Tanka. If you have any questions, please contact us at tankatuesdaypoetry@gmail.com. 🌻

As co-editors, we establish the guidelines for submissions, and we hope to be the first to showcase your talented tanka and tanka prose with the rest of the world in this year’s Sunflower Tanka Journal.

Please write your tanka and/or tanka prose using the theme that will be announced on July 15, 2026. If you don’t use the words of the theme, we must be able to infer the meaning.

• The first letter of each line of Japanese syllabic poetry is not capitalized.
• Tanka do not have titles. Please add titles to your tanka prose, tanka rensaku (series), taiga, tanka Puente & garland tanka.

🌻 Sunflower Tanka only receives submissions by email. Thank you.🌻

Please email us with the following:

To: tankatuesdaypoetry@gmail.com

Subject Line: SUBMISSIONS – CURRENT THEME – YOUR NAME

The body of your email should look like this:

First Name: name

Second Name: last name

Email Address: your email

Social Media Address: your blog address

Copyright Name: your name as the author

Spelling & Punctuation Programs you used: We do NOT accept AI-written poetry. (Amazon allows us to use Grammarly, Pro Writing Aid, Canva, LanguageTool, etc., for spelling and punctuation). We must declare these writing aids to Amazon at the time of publication.

One-sentence introduction: EX: (Your name is a poet/author who loves finding the magic in everyday connections through prose & poetry).

Country: country where you live

List the programs you used for editing: Amazon allows us to use Grammarly, Pro Writing Aid, Canva, LanguageTool, etc., for spelling and punctuation editing. We must declare these writing aids to Amazon at the time of publication.

Add your 3 poems in the body of the email. Please keep the poems left-aligned on the page, with two lines between each poem. If you submit a Rensaku series, please number each poem in the order the stanzas should appear. Attach your photo for your tiaga. Clearly mark and type your tanka to go on the taiga in the body of the email. Do NOT attach a Word document. Thanks.

Poets will retain the copyright of their poems after publication. If you use your poem elsewhere, please add the line: “This poem was first published in the 2026 Edition of Sunflower Tanka.”

PLEASE NOTE: Poets will be able to purchase an EPUB (Kindle) or PDF (print) copy of the anthology through Amazon.com. If poets live in a country that prohibits the purchase of the anthology through Amazon.com or their country’s Amazon affiliate, they might want to reconsider submitting to this anthology. We do not send copies of the anthology through email or by U.S. mail due to restrictions in tariffs and other taxes. Thank you.

🌻 If your poem is featured in this anthology, we will share a personalized interview with the poet to be published on this site after the anthology is published. 🌻

Thank you. We look forward to reading your syllabic poetry.

Our Warmest Regards,

🌻 Robbie Cheadle & Colleen Chesebro 🌻 Contributing Co-editors