Warp and Weft ~ Images and Words: February 2021

Sunday, February 07, 2021

Snapshot Press Book Awards, 2020

I'm beyond honoured to announce that my full-length haiku manuscript, Random Blue Sparks, has received the 2020 Snapshot Press Book Award!

I'll post further details when the books is released.

http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/contests/book_awards/results.htm

From Snapshot Press:

Snapshot Press is an independent publisher specializing in English-language haiku, tanka and other short poetry by authors from around the world.

Founded in 1997, our publications include anthologies, single-author collections, and annual editions of The Haiku Calendar. Our books have been honoured by the Haiku Society of America, The Poetry Society of America, and The Haiku Foundation.

From Michael Dylan Welch in Modern Haiku:

Snapshot Press sets the platinum standard for design and production values among haiku and tanka books. Their quality is unsurpassed. Indeed, books from Snapshot Press are always a tactile and poetic delight.

San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu and Tanka, 2020

a raven

believed it could fly

through me

unaware that I am glass,

pretending to be sky

Third Place

Judge's comments:

This one-breath tanka is not only whimsical, but astonishing. The first three lines reveal a raven with magical traits—one who believed it could fly through a person. The tone of the tanka sounds fanciful until it pivots on the fourth line with the word "unaware." Eventually, I hear "glass" shattering into pieces and I feel a sudden twinge of pain as I read the revelation of the last line—"pretending to be sky." Sometimes, I, too, like to pretend that I am carefree and invincible like the sky because it feels good. I even manage to convince others that I am such until I get hurt and I'm reminded that I'm actually fragile, vulnerable, and destructible. It's a sad truth, and the poet has effectively conveyed this message in five lines.

—Christine Villa

The Haiku Foundation, Juxta 5 - Research and Scholarship in Haiku, December 2019

Haiga Feature:

...Nevertheless, the selections for Juxta 5 show haiga by fine women poet-artists with a great range of observation and imagination. This demonstrates growing interest and increasing creativity in this multifaceted form of visual-verbal expression. Each of the following artist-poets has also been chosen for the Gallery of the Haiku Foundation, where you will find further examples of their work...

My thanks to Stephen Addiss for his commentary below:

Utilizing digital elements to help transform both her watercolors and her digital images, Debbie Strange is able to create a number of focused images, many from everyday life. Some of her ink paintings are minimal but cogent, while her digital images tend to be more complex. In either case, there are always free areas that give the poems their own space while helping to complete meaningful visual structures.

(Note: this haiku received an Honourable Mention in the 2015 Autumn Haiku Contest administered by the Japan Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan, Washington D.C.)

The Poetry Pea Journal of Haiku and Senryu, Winter 2020

Editor: Patricia McGuire

"Found"

storm clouds

I spread out my joy

on the grass

culled from: "New Rain", The One & the Many by Rabindranath Tagore

"No Verbs"

dry fountain

the blue tongue

of a gargoyle

warm earth

between our fingers . . .

cemetery birds

Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2020-2021

tablelands

nothing left to catch

the wind

Haiga Gallery:

Poetry Pea, January 2021

The Haiku Pea Podcast

Series 4, Episode 2 - "Spring and Autumn", January 18, 2021

blue nemophila

I still miss the little things

about my sister

Winner

2020 Akita International Haku Contest

the ruts we slip into falling leaves

Tinywords, Issue 20.2, January 2021

Note: this haiku first appeared in the Autumn Moon Haiku Journal 3:2, Spring-Summer 2020

Dance into the World, Tanka Society of America Twentieth Anniversary Anthology, 2020

Edited by Michael Dylan Welch

sprites flash

across purpling skies

for an instant

I forget the grim state

of this locked-down life

Stardust Haiku, Issue 49, January 2021

seed packets

the many colours

of grief

The Cicada's Cry: A Micro-Zine of Haiku Poetry, Winter 2020

the last patch

of watermelon snow . . .

alpine chough

The Bamboo Hut, Number 1, 2021

the year that was

mask debate

the wasps inside

my mouth

lockdown

a song sparrow offers

mother's eulogy

isolation walk

I wash my hands

at water's edge

quarantine

the silent scolding

of squirrels

travel ban

a jet on the runway

of my mind

social unrest

we drive into a tornado

of tumbleweeds

Our Best Haiga: Black & White Haiga/Haisha, January 2021

Curated by Lavana Kray

January 14, 2021

(Note: this haiku originally appeared in Creatrix 48, March 2020)

January 23, 2021

(Note: this haiga originally appeared in colour, and it received a Highly Commended in the 2020 Santoka International Haiku and Haiga Contest)

NeverEnding Story, February 2021

Translated into Chinese by Chen-ou Liu:

a smudge

of blackbirds swirling

into evening . . .

how fluid the shape

of this sorrow

2nd Place

2018 Fleeting Words Tanka Competition

Chen-ou Liu's Comments: (excerpted from commentary by judges Carole MacRury and Michael McClintock)

This well-constructed tanka uses sibilance to enhance the fluidity of the reading as well as the fluidity of the emotions shown through the image in the first three lines. This fine poem by Debbie Strange shows the power of understatement and the power of imagery to express deep emotions. It has that magic space where readers may enter with their own experiences. Deep sorrow, as most of us know, comes unexpectedly in dark, wave-like moments just like the "smudge of blackbirds swirling into evening". Every single word earns its place in this poem.

Narrow Road Literary Journal, Volume 12, December 2020

2020 Weighing Raindrops Haiku Contest

"Narrow Road shook hands with the ArtMantram Foundation to curate the first-ever haiku contest at their Glass House Literary Festival. Editors Rohini Gupta, Paresh Tiwari, and Raamesh Gowri Raghavan doubled up as judges. 129 entries poured in from all over the world on the theme of 'rain'. The winners were announced on 26th July 2020 at the Grand Finale of the Glass Festival over Zoom video conference."

ceaseless rain

the questions I still

ask myself

Third Prize

My thanks to the judges!

golden crowns fill

with snow

Bottle Rockets, Vol. 22, Number 2 (or#44), February 2021

murky night

a great grey owl sees

all there is to see

Asahi Haikuist Network, January 2021

new snowshoes

the scrambled prints

of lynx and hare

Warp and Weft ~ Images and Words