Haiku Canada: Marianne Bluger Awards, 2022

Honoured to receive the 2022 Marianne Bluger Chapbook Award for The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations! My thanks to the judges.

Judging Commentary:

"...and The Language of Loss by Debbie Strange leave one with a feeling of a complete artistic statement authentic to human experience and emotion. Both book and chapbook demonstrate a technical facility that projects the illusion of effortless composition from page to page."

—Lynn Jambor and Roland Packer

Poetry Pea: A Pea TV Reading, October 2021

The Haiku Pea Podcast

Series 4, Episode 19 - "Happy Haiku Birthday" - October 4, 2021

Grateful to Patricia McGuire for inviting me (accompanied by my husband) to read from my book, The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations, the winner of the Sable Books 2019 International Women's Haiku Book Contest. This book also received an Honourable Mention in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for 2021 (for books published in 2020)!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhnp06XN61I

Ribbons, Volume 17, Number 3, Fall 2021

My thanks to Jenny Ward Angyal for her lovely review of The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations. It may be accessed via the book title's tab of this blog.

a whisper

of moths circling

the beacon

it is much too late

for sirens

My thanks to Ryland Shengzhi Li for including my work in his essay, Gifts of Tanka: An Essay on Structure:

"The event-and-response structure comprises an event, state, or thing paired with a response...

the ocean

was in a rage last night

but today,

these peace offerings

of blue mussels and kelp

(1st Place, 2018 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest)

Here, the event comprises the first two lines of the ocean in a rage last night, while the response, today's peace offerings, comes in the last three lines. What follows rage is not destruction, as one might expect, but offerings of peace.

Although the words of the poem focus on the ocean, they also invite the reader to infer meanings about human life. The poem suggests a mood of hopeful expectation in a dire situation, perhaps reconciliation after a fight. If even the ocean, the vastest thing on earth, can resolve rage with peace offerings, how much more so we human beings. In this sense, the poem's description of the ocean gives us perspective and grounding in our own life, while relating the ocean to human affairs helps us see the ocean with greater familiarity. The poem also suggests the impermanence of all things: even a strong emotion like rage will eventually wane and be pacified. The "peace offerings" here are also food items, often used to cultivate peace between humans.

 

Frogpond, Vol. 44, Number 3, Autumn 2021

wolf pack

our social glue

u n s t i c k s

This issue includes Kristen Lindquist's lovely review of The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations:

https://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2021-issue44-3/Strange-Review-Frogpond44-3.pdf

My thanks to Kristen for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and appreciative review! A transcript of her review may be accessed under this blog's tab for The Language of Loss.

This issue also includes Randy Brooks' wonderful review of A New Resonance 12:

https://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2021-issue44-3/Kacian-Review-NewResonance12-Frogpond44-3.pdf 

My thanks to Randy for the following excerpt regarding my work:

Debbie Strange is a master at setting a scene, then inviting the reader to settle in for a story. She doesn't provide the end of the story, but just enough to get us anticipating or imagining possibilities. We get the gist and feel the feeling of the tale:

porch swing

songs where we least

expect them

This issue also includes the results of the 2021 Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for books published in 2020. My thanks to the judges, Ce Rosenow and Bryan Rickert for awarding The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations an honourable mention in this contest! Their comments follow:

True to its name, Debbie Strange's The Language of Loss explores the many facets of loss and survival using both haiku and tanka. One haiku and one tanka are paired beautifully on every page. Never predictable and always revealing, this book delivers consistent quality from start to finish.

Haiku Society of America, Merit Book Awards, 2021

Thrilled to have received an Honourable Mention in the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for 2021 (for books published in 2020) for The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations (Sable Books 2020).

https://sablebooks.org/the-language-of-loss/

My thanks to judges Ce Rosenow and Bryan Rickert for their lovely comments:

"True to its name, The Language of Loss explores the many facets of loss and survival using both haiku and tanka. One haiku and one tanka are paired beautifully on every page. Never predictable and always revealing, this book delivers consistent quality from start to finish."

This book was also the winner of the 2019 Sable Books International Women's Haiku Book Contest, judged by Roberta Beary, esteemed author of The Unworn Necklace and Deflection.

 

Blithe Spirit, Vol. 31, Number 2, May 2021

My thanks to Colin Blundell for the wonderful review of The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations, which may be accessed under the book's tab!

pleats of light

fold into the valley . . .

mountain goats

moving away

the liquid whistle

of a bobwhite

waterfalls

everywhere we look

even the smallest

leaves its signature

on this mountain

Note: This issue also contains the results and commentaries for the 2020 British Haiku Society Awards, which may be accessed under the British Haiku Society tag on this blog. I was thrilled to receive an Honourable Mention in the annual tanka contest. My thanks to the judge, Michael McClintock.

 

GUSTS, Number 33, Spring/Summer 2021

Honoured to have a lovely review of my collection, winner of the 2019 Sable Books International Women's Haiku Contest, in this issue. It may be accessed under The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations tab. My gratitude to Joanne Morcom!

my eyesight

not what it once was

but, oh

the way a rainbow blurs

into iridescence

stepping into

this snow-starred night

I take

a breath of something

that might be optimism

prairie drought . . .

the belt-buckle sun

offers no mercy,

every blade of grass

sharp as your tongue

 

Haiku Canada Review, Vol. 15, Number 1, February 2021

mittensmitten

idle tractor

puddles of sunset

in every furrow

Note: This issue includes a lovely review by Sandra Stephenson of The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations. It may be accessed via the book title's tab of this blog.

Daily Haiku, Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog, November 2020

My thanks to Charlotte for featuring three sets from The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations (Sable Books 2020), winner of the 2019 International Women's Haiku Book Contest:

rainbows

spin from the crest

of a wave . . .

I wish we'd had more

time to say goodbye

    feathers

    on the empty beach

    I write his name

**

a star tortoise

carries the universe

on its back . . .

are we slowly moving

away from each other

    dark matter

    we never plan

    to be alone

**

ancient graves

sink into marshland . . .

the long bones

of our ancestors

wandering, still

    hollyhocks

    our parents grow smaller

    every year

 

Sable Books - 2019 International Women's Haiku Book Contest

Overall Winner - Debbie Strange

The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations

I offer my gratitude to Roberta Beary, judge of the 2019 Sable Books Haiku Book Contest for Women, for her sensitive and insightful reading of The Language of Loss: Haiku & Tanka Conversations, and for her generous commentary. It is an honour beyond measure to receive the first place award from an esteemed writer I so admire.

My appreciation is also extended to accomplished writers Kala Ramesh and Christina Sng, for their support during the pre-reading process.

Thank you to John Barlow, editor of Snapshot Press, for his encouraging note regarding an earlier version of the tanka portion of this manuscript.

I am indebted to the Sable books team for administering this contest, and for their dedication to the promotion of diverse voices.


Judge Roberta Beary's commentary:

"These exquisite poems illuminate the skill of the author in pairing haiku and tanka in conversation, one page at a time. On one page, the long ago past talks to the recent past. On another, the sorrow of the natural world is juxtaposed with that of the human world.

The Language of Loss contains tanka and haiku of exceptional quality. But it is the remarkable way in which the poet links tanka and haiku that elevated The Language of Loss into the winner's circle. The poems on each page come together in a conversation of many layers. That these conversations will deepen and change for each reader is due to the author's expertise. I am delighted to congratulate Debbie Strange on her winning collection."