Photos from Haiku Holiday 2008

Here are some photos from the 29th annual Haiku Holiday given by the North Carolina Haiku Society.

Willow Songs: Haiku Acapella

Sarah Shunk, Andie Piddington, Deborah Stewart, and Sylvia Freeman are Fleur-de-Lisa, an acappella group based in Durham, North Carolina. They recently recorded Willow Songs, a CD of songs based on haiku from Beneath the Willow Tree, an anthology of haiku by members of the North Carolina Haiku Society. Fleur-de-Lisa has performed Willow Songs at a number of poetry events, including Haiku Holiday 2008. The photos from Haiku Holiday might give you an idea of how delightful these little songs are.

Fleur-de-Lisa is one of the first, if not the first, acappella groups to feature a performance of haiku in English. By turns simple, playful, and beautiful, the acappella form is a perfect compliment to haiku.

The Willow Songs CD is $12.00. Contact: haikusongs@gmail.com.

Haiku Calendar Competition: Deadline fast approaching

This just in from John Barlow, founder of Snapshot Press . . .


The deadline for this year’s Haiku Calendar contest is now only a few days away. Entries must be postmarked by Wednesday April 30.

The 2009 calendar will be the tenth annual edition of The Haiku Calendar.

Full details are at http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/haiku_competition_details.htm#calendar_comp

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Mainstream recognition for haiku collection

The news that Roberta Beary’s collection of haiku and senryu, The Unworn Necklace, had been recognized in the Poetry Society of America Awards, reverberated around the haiku community earlier this week, appearing in the top four of Buzz Tracker’s Poetry News ‘Most blogged’.

As William J. Higginson put it on his Wordfield’s Haikai Pub blog, “If you haven’t heard yet, note now that a haiku book, a small haiku book, all things considered, has been named one of two finalists for the extremely prestigious William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.”

The Unworn Necklace rose into the top 28,000 rankings of all books on amazon.com, and into the Top 50 rankings of American single-author poetry books. As one woman commented on Ron Silliman’s blog, “Beary is new to me, I can't wait to dig into her work.” It was also notable that the amazon.com rankings of other ‘serious’ haiku books rose considerably in the aftermath.

If you missed the news, or wish to read more comments and the ensuing discussions, please visit:

Silliman’s Blog: http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/search/label/Roberta%20Beary

Wordfield’s Haikai Pub: http://haikaipub.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/announcement-roberta-bearys-the-unworn-necklace-finalist-for-william-carlos-williams-award-from-poetry-society-of-america/

f/k/a: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/2008/04/22/psa-honors-haiku-roberta-bearys-the-unworn-necklace/

Blogging Along Tobacco Road: http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2008/04/roberta-bearys-unworn-necklace-honored.html

North Carolina Haiku Society Blog: http://nc-haiku.blogspot.com/2008/04/roberta-beary-finalist-in-poetry.html

* * *

Thank you to everyone who sent in messages to the press and to Roberta.

The Unworn Necklace (and many other excellent books!) can be ordered from http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/orderonline.htm

/ END

John Barlow
Editor, Snapshot Press
e: info@snapshotpress.co.uk
Snapshot Press: www.snapshotpress.co.uk
Wing Beats: www.wingbeats.co.uk
The Bittern’s Neck: http://www.threelightsgallery.com/johnbarlowintro.html

Roberta Beary a Finalist in The Poetry Society of America Awards

It is rare when a haiku collection receives recognition from mainstream poetry reviewers or organizations, but Roberta Beary's The Unworn Necklace has done just that. Roberta was one of two finalists for the William Carlos Williams Award given by the Poetry Society of America.

According to the PSA Web site, the William Carlos Williams Award "... is for a book of poetry published by a small press, non-profit, or university press. Original works by a single author who is a permanent resident of the United States will be considered." Details below from Snapshot Press . . .

"Snapshot Press is delighted that The Unworn Necklace, Roberta Beary’s collection of haiku and senryu, was selected as a ‘finalist’ in the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award.

This is a rare, major recognition for haiku by the poetry mainstream.

Roberta attended the 98th Annual Awards ceremony in New York City last night, where she enjoyed the company of Cor van den Heuvel (editor of The Haiku Anthology) and his wife, Leigh.

The Award winner was Aram Saroyan’s collected work, Complete Minimal Poems. There was one other finalist: Sorry, Tree by Eileen Myles.

The judge, Ron Silliman, has today written about the finalists on his hugely influential literary blog http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/. He concludes that “Absent Aram Saroyan’s Complete Minimal Poems, I knew I would have given the WCW Award to one of these two books. That is really all that distinguishes them from the 16 other great books I was still enthralled with as I finished my work for the Poetry Society of America. The only thing these books share in common is their power, and it’s interesting to imagine what kind of statement either would have made had it been the volume selected. This is what I just hate about contests. Each of these volumes is a total winner.”

Within the blog entry he writes extensively about The Unworn Necklace – interestingly considering haiku in a wider poetic sense – and concluding that:

“the aesthetic here of absolutely minimal strokes accumulating to create a far more powerful picture is really overwhelming. This is a book I never would have picked up – probably never would have seen, although it’s already gone into a second printing – that made me completely grateful to the Poetry Society of America and the Williams Carlos Williams Award for putting it into my hands.”
He also notes that “ . . . it was the only British book in the entire process – Snapshot Press is one of the standard-bearers for haiku and tanka,“ adding, quite correctly, that we “thus far (have) a pretty rudimentary website”!

We feel this landmark achievement for the ‘haiku community’ underlines a belief that haiku has a considerable potential audience beyond this community, and that English-language haiku of the highest quality can break down barriers that both exist, and are perceived to exist, between ‘mainstream’ poetry and haiku. This will ultimately be to the benefit of all in the haiku community – haiku needs readers – but it will only be possible if we are collectively and individually supportive of such opportunities as they arise.

We hope the re-design of the site will be completed in late May. In the meantime, please visit www.snapshotpress.co.uk if you would like to order a copy of The Unworn Necklace.

And please consider also visiting www.wingbeats.co.uk for details of another forthcoming Snapshot Press book that is already attracting considerable attention both within and outside haiku circles."


John Barlow
Editor, Snapshot Press
e: info@snapshotpress.co.uk
w: www.snapshotpress.co.uk

Video: Billy Collins Reading His Haiku

This just in from Richard Straw . . .

Borders has a Web site devoted to poets reading their poems that you may already have visited. If not, here’s the link:

http://www.bordersmedia.com/odp/

Click on Billy Collins (Episode 3) to hear and see him read from She Was Just Seventeen, his 2006 book of haiku that was published by the Modern Haiku Press (http://www.modernhaiku.org/bookreviews/Collins2007.html).

New Releases from Red Moon Press

From Jim Kacian, founder of Red Moon Press . . .

Hi All:

Just a quick note to let you all know the Red Moon Press has three new releases for April, plus the inauguration of a new series.

First is our ninth volume of the contemporary haibun series, this one featuring 60 haibun in English and 20 haiga from around the world. For nearly a decade contemporary haibun has been the only serial book dedicated to these forms. As Jeffrey Woodward, Editor of Haibun Today writes, "contemporary haibun has stood alone, for nearly a decade, as the chief vehicle and bulwark of the burgeoning haibun movement in English. Without the vanguard role of this annual anthology, one might reasonably inquire how--and perhaps if--haibun would have survived."
ISBN 1-978-893959-69-9. 110 pages, $16.95.

Martin Shea is a name many people have encountered only in the haiku anthologies, but this new selection of his work, waking on the bridge, will introduce him to an entirely new generation of haiku poets. Shea is a technical innovator, and his distinctive voice is discernable throughout. As Philip Rowland, Founding Editor of NOON: The Journal of the Short Poem , says, ". . . a beautiful collection, wistful, almost dream-like at times, and not without haiku humour. The section breaks pace the collection, while each section is short enough to keep the key-note in mind. Wonder's not an easy thing to do these 'late' days of
(first-phase?) English-language haiku, but Shea brings it off. And those classics really hold up." ISBN 1-978-893959-71-2. 64 pages, $12.

The third volume is a theoretical heavyweight, ten years in the making.
Richard Gilbert's Poems of Consciousness: Contemporary Japanese & English-language Haiku in Cross-cultural Perspective is the backbone of the new haiku, the underpinning beneath all the language of "irruptive"
haiku, the most important innovation in haiku in half a century. As William J. Higginson, author of The Haiku Handbook, states, "In Poems of Consciousness, Richard Gilbert investigates Japanese haiku in the flesh.
He not only reports on what he has gleaned from books about haiku, but includes interviews with and writings by living Japanese haiku masters.
Here you will meet some of today's most widely respected poets. Kiyoko Uda has been at the forefront of haiku's growing popularity among younger poets for the past several decades. She recently became president of the Modern Haiku Association--the most avant-garde of Japan's major haiku organizations. Hasegawa Kai leads the contemporary reexamination of all our assumptions about the haiku of the past and points the way ahead for this new century. These and others provide striking poems--in Gilbert's insightful translations--that will, along with his own provocative essays, make anyone familiar with the haiku genre rethink their understanding of this brand new poetry." ISBN 1-978-893959-72-9. 302 pages. $27.95.

Red Moon Press also announces the Postscript Series, a series of chapbooks designed to honor recently deceased haiku poets. Each chapbook is culled from the entire oeuvre of the poet's lifetime, with an eye to what made the poet both distinctive and ahead of their time. Each book is handmade in limited quantities. At present there are four titles
available: pictographs (haiku of Tony Quagliano), change (haiku of Wim Lofvers), sparklers (haiku of Lorraine Ellis Harr, and faint notes (haiku of Marianne Bluger). Other volumes in preparation include work by L. A. Davidson, Francine Porad, Jerry Kilbride and Kay F. Anderson. Each volume 24 pages, $5.

All these fine books are available from www.redmoonpress.com .

Thank you for your continued support.

Jim Kacian
Red Moon Press

3 Lights Gallery of Haiku and Tanka

Hooray for the Brits!

Check out Liam Wilkinson's classy 3 Lights Gallery of Haiku and Tanka.

Sketchbook: a Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms

From Karina Klesko, Editor . . .

Sketchbook a Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms

Audio haiku from the Route 9 Haiku Group

From Curtis . . .

I recently happened upon a reading in audio format of the fabulous Route 9 Haiku Group. To hear this group of talented poets, visit this link:

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2008/04/route-9-haiku-group-reading.html

Peace and prosperity to you all.

Sincerely,

Curtis Dunlap

Haiku Holiday: April 26 in Chapel Hill, NC

We just posted the schedule for the 29th annual Haiku Holiday with the North Carolina Haiku Society on Saturday April 26, 2008. Experienced haiku teachers and poets will conduct workshops, talks and walks. The event is open to anyone with an interest in haiku, beginner or advanced. Please see the Haiku Holiday section of our Web site for details.

WGOT's Java & Jazz Series

Greensboro has a very active poetry scene, and the Writer's Group of the Triad is right in the middle of it. See their Web site for details about the Java & Jazz series for National Poetry Month.

See also Poetry GSO, one of North Carolina’s largest commemorations of National Poetry Month.