Call for Submissions to the Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards for 2011

The Award

The Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Awards Series enters its second year. and includes the Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards for 2011. The Touchstone Awards Series is a family of awards designed to recognize and reward excellence in the field of haiku.

The Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards will be bestowed annually on published collections of poems, or works of scholarship that present a noteworthy contribution to English-language haiku in the estimation of a distinguished panel of poets, editors and scholars. Any English-language book or other production that is of or about haiku (and related forms) is eligible for the Award. The 2011 Award is open to books published between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011. Each author of an award-winning book will receive an engraved stone with their name and title of their book on it, emblematic of his or her contribution to the foundations of English-language haiku. Winners of the Award for 2010 included Carolyn Hall (How to Paint the Finch’s Song), John Stevenson (Live Again), Allan Burns (Montage), and John Martone (Scrittura Povera). There were also three Honorable Mentions.

The Panel

The panel for the Touchstone Distinguished Books Awards for 2011 consists of Charles P. Trumbull, editor of Modern Haiku; Professor David G. Lanoue, author of Haiku Guy; Lorin Ford, haiku editor for the online journal A Hundred Gourds; Professor Philip Rowland, editor of Noon: Journal of the Short Poem; and Barbara Louise Ungar, winner of the Gival Press Poetry Prize in 2006.

What Books Are Eligible?

Any individual or publisher whose book has been published within the given time frame may submit their work for consideration. There is no reading fee. If there is some question about your book’s eligibility, please contact the Foundation at the address below for clarification.

How to Submit

To qualify for the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award, each poet must initially submit two copies of the book nominated no later that October 15, 2010 (postmark). One copy will be assigned to one of the panelists, the other will become a permanent inclusion in The Haiku Foundation’s permanent hard copy library. Each submitter will be recognized as a donor to the Foundation and cited on the Donation Page of the website. Should your submission be recommended for the short list, we will at that time request four additional copies so the entire panel may consider it. Short list entries and award winners will be cited on The Haiku Foundation website. Nominated volumes should be sent to:

The Haiku Foundation
Touchstone Distinguished Books Award
PO Box 2461
Winchester VA
22604-1661 USA

Enquiries may be directed to this address, or to web.admin@thehaikufoundation.org.