The Solitary Daisy, Issue 78, July 2026

I'm grateful to the editors, Michele Rule and Sally Quon, for inviting me to submit the following award details for Random Blue Sparks!

1st Place (joint) in the 2026 Haiku Canada Marianne Bluger Book Awards

3rd Place in the 2025 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards

Shorlisted for a Haiku Foundation Award

Haiku Canada: Marianne Bluger Awards, 2026

Thrilled to receive joint 1st Place in the 2026 Marianne Bluger Book Awards for Random Blue Sparks! My thanks to the judges.

Judging Commentary:

We were looking for haiku and related forms that ring true; a book or chapbook that demonstrates coherence and flow; and a book design that enhances the poet's work. A tall order, as all of these features work together to engage a reader.

—Terry Ann Carter and Philomene Kocher

Museum of Haiku Literature, Japan

I'm honoured to know that Masako Kakutani will introduce "Random Blue Sparks" to haiku poets in Japan who are interested in English-language haiku, and that Haijin Kyokai (Tokyo, Japan) will include my book in the Museum of Haiku Literature collection!

Frogpond, Vol. 48, Number 3, Autumn 2025

Honoured that this issue contains a lovely review of Random Blue Sparks by Allyson Whipple which can be accessed under the book's tab of this blog. Also featured in this issue are the results of the 2025 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards in which Random Blue Sparks placed third. The judges' report can also be found under the book's tab of this blog.

Silver Birch Press, December 2025

Bugs & Insects Series:

dead orchard

the random blue sparks

of woolly aphids

3rd Place, 2018 Irish Haiku Society International Competition 

Author's note:

This was written in response to a magical sighting of woolly blue aphids flitting about our campsite. Their iridescent winds and tiny, furry blue bodies make them look like woodland fairies. Though these little creatures are beautiful, they can also be deadly in numbers! this haiku is the title poem of my recent full-length collection, Random Blue Sparks (Snapshot Press, 2024).

 

Presence, Number 83, November 2025

Honoured and grateful to receive a lovely review of Random Blue Sparks by Julie Mellor in this issue! It can be accessed under the book's tab of this blog.

narwhal migration

a child spots

her first unicorn

equinox . . .

when the sun forgets

to shine,

migrating goldfinches

still remember how

Haiku Canada Review, Volume 19, Number 2, October 2025

Honoured to have a lovely review of "Random Blue Sparks" in this issue. It can be accessed under the book's tab on this blog. My thanks to Louise Carson for her generous words and sensitive reading of my work.

hired hand

smoke rings encircle

the sun

Blithe Spirit, Volume 35, Number 4, November 2025

Honoured to receive a lovely review of "Random Blue Sparks" by Iliyana Stoyanova in this issue. It can be accessed under the book's tab of this blog.

mother's last glimmer of light goldcrest

zombie fires

come back from the dead . . .

this wilderness

haunted by skeletons

and memories of trees

Kokako, Number 43, September 2025

Grateful to have a lovely review of "Random Blue Sparks" by the editor, Graham Bates, included in this issue. It can be accessed under the book's title tab of this blog. I'm also honoured that "homelessness" was nominated by the editor for a 2025 Touchstone Award!

homelessness

the driftwood's hole

filled with a stone

rime ice

the spikes of burrs

grow longer

childhood days

spent digging for treasure

on the beach

you still wear the pendant

I made from pirate glass

the wind

strumming ocean waves

what music

do you have in store

for me tomorrow

Haiku Society of America, Merit Book Awards, 2025

Thrilled to have received 3rd Place in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for 2025 (for books published in 2024) for Random Blue Sparks (Snapshot Press, 2024)

Judges' commentary:

"In Arctic Dreams the biologist Barry Lopez wrote that landscape shapes our imagination. Debbie Strange has lived in western Canada all her life where her sense of place has been finely honed; so too are her haiku that come from this lived experience. With amazingly precise and beautiful language Strange writes of the "undersong of a thrush," "the iridescent sound of morning," and the "grace notes" of a meadowlark. She writes of a landscape of coulees, auroras, and parhelions. The natural world comes alive in her haiku where we meet capelin, orcas, thunderbugs, scarlet tanagers, witches' butter, puffballs, trilliums, and almost-white tundra hares. Each treated with clear, yet surprisingly fresh language. You've probably met a woolly aphid or two in your backyard, but from the title poem ("dead orchard / the random blue sparks / of woolly aphids") you'll learn they sometimes come in blue. The book itself produced by Snapshot Press is a pleasure to hold and to read.

firelight knitting another length of silence

marsh reeds

we learn the secret

language of wind

(note: I have corrected a couple of errors in the H.S.A. website release of the commentary)

—Scott Mason & Patricia J. Machmiller

  

#FemkuMag, Issue 39, Summer 2025

Honoured to have "bully culture" nominated by the editors for the 2025 Touchstone Awards and for the Red Moon Anthology!

fogged in

a friend jumps off the bridge

to nowhere

bully culture

six coyotes surround

a mule deer

if we had one

to call our own . . .

star nursery

Note: this issue also includes a lovely review of Random Blue Sparks. It can be accessed under the Random Blue Sparks tab of this blog. My deepest thanks to Rowan Beckett Minor for the sensitive reading and commentary.

 

Seashores - An International Journal to Share the Spirit of Haiku, Vol. 14, April 2025

My thanks to guest editors K.J. Munro and Sherry Grant for selecting the following work:

coming rain

the frogs croak

louder

black sand beach

a chunk of ice

holds the sky

flagstone path

empty spaces softened

by moss

I'm beyond grateful to Tim Dwyer for his lovely review of Random Blue Sparks in this issue. The review can be accessed under the Random Blue Sparks tab of this blog.

The Haiku Foundation: The Touchstone Award for Distinguished Books, 2024

I'm honoured that my haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, was selected for the following honours. My thanks to the esteemed panel of judges, and to John Barlow of Snapshot Press!

April 3, 2025:

Thrilled to say that Random Blue Sparks was one of 76 books longlisted for the 2024 Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Books Award!

April 10, 2025:

Doubly thrilled to say that Random Blue Sparks was one of 18 books shortlisted for the 2024 Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Books Award!

Random Blue Sparks, Snapshot Press, December 2024

Random Blue Sparks - a haiku collection released by Snapshot Press on December 30, 2024

https://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/books/random_blue_sparks.htm

Winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press Book Awards

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

I'm beyond honoured to announce that my book-length haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press Book Award, was published by the press on December 30, 2024. Thank you to John Barlow for selecting and sequencing these poems, and to Chuck Brickley for his valuable insights. I'm also grateful to Chuck Brickley, Ron Moss, and Tom Clausen for their generous blurbs. Special thanks to my husband, Larry, who is my first reader and second pair of eyes.

Praise for Random Blue Sparks:

'Debbie Strange's first full-length collection of haiku offers a stunning display of sensory artistry inspired by the landscapes and ecosystems of Western Canada. Random Blue Sparks is a wonderfully vibrant gathering of moments to savour.'

—Chuck Brickley

Author, earthshine

'From finely tuned observations of the tiniest life forms to quiet reverence for open landscapes of earth and sky, this brilliant collection is a timely reminder of the relevance of nature haiku in today's climate.'

—Ron C. Moss

Author, The Bone Carver

'Illuminating the essence of experiences and things, Random Blue Sparks is a compelling love letter to the prairies, mountains and waters of the western provinces of Canada. These indelible haiku brim with poetic joie de vivre.'

—Tom Clausen

Author, Growing Late

Haiku

stormlight

a pronghorn outruns

the rain

meadowlarks

the grace notes that follow

me home

weaving light

into this day of mourning . . .

damselflies

submerged log

the descending sizes

of painted turtles

weathered oars

we fold our worries

into the river

(note: this collection contains sixteen award-winning haiku)

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!

Random Blue Sparks - a haiku collection released by Snapshot Press on December 30, 2024

https://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/books/random_blue_sparks.htm

Winner of the 2020 Snapshot Press Book Awards

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.