Carolyn Hall — Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2025

Carolyn Hall  is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2025 for the volume Pulling the Yarn,  (Winchester: VA, Red Moon Press,  2025).

Commentary from the Panel

Fans of Carolyn Hall’s work, of which there are many, and new readers alike will not be disappointed in her latest collection, Pulling the Yarn. This book, divided into two parts, offers an impressive selection of 79 award winning and 53 previously uncollected haiku spanning 25 years of Hall’s writing life.

The retrospective aspect of this collection allows the reader to discover overarching motifs, “the yarn” that impels Hall as a writer. One such motif stated directly or implied is that of cycle, concentric circles whose common center is an observer viewing experience and their own life through a lens of haiku sensibility.

circle of lamplight —
I complete the baby quilt
begun for me

the way
she makes the whole pond tremble
. . . breaststroke

windfall apples
what I think about
what I think

four to hug it giant redwood

wild berries —
one training wheel lifts
round the curve

Overall Pulling the Yarn is organized by seasonal cycles beginning and ending in Spring. Though this may be generally considered a conventional way to organize a haiku collection, in this case it is a most apt choice – the broadest of the pond’s ripples. Hall’s writing style is masterfully accessible and musical.

spilt milk
spreading along the grout lines
morning chill

my eighth decade
how the rains
rearrange the creek

Her word choices are delicately edited down to the essential.

from bee sting
to emergency room
six stop lights

Her subject matter and details are precise, intimate, and evocative, creating resonate
touchpoints between moment and the universal.

her death date
I pause the river
in my cupped hands

The title haiku for uncollected section speaks to this choice of moment and experience – the point where the flow of the universal narrows down to a specific instance that allows its nature to lift off, to be seen, heard, and languaged by the poet.

where the stream
narrows into song
flight of the swallowtail

To put it plainly, Pulling the Yarn is packed full of top-quality haiku that have remained fresh and relevant for over two and a half decades because they rise above and expand beyond the topical. They speak to natural cycles and life experiences: the seasons, transitions, birth, childhood, partnership, parenthood, the progression of time, death, rebirth.

Perhaps the 5-word haiku that begins the entire collection best sums up Hall’s skill and experience as author and editor, and the regenerative nature of the haiku creative process itself.

keep this
toss that
spring

Bruce H. Feingold

Distinguished Books Award, Coordinator

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See the complete list of winners of both Individual Poem Awards and Distinguished Books Awards in the Touchstone Archives.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]