It’s Time to Nominate Poems for the 2023 Touchstone Award

The year is hurrying by, and as we’ve entered autumn, we are ready to accept your nominations for the 2023 Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. It is time to start reflecting on your favorite English-language haiku and senryu published in 2023.

The Touchstone is an award, not a contest. It is our goal to recognize the best haiku and senryu published each calendar year. We wish to present to our panelists as broad and top-flight a selection of poems as possible.

As in past years, we have asked journal editors to nominate the best of what they have published this year. Also, starting this year, we are soliciting contests to submit their winning poems.

We invite individuals in the community to participate using this FORM (submissions may be made by this form only – please do not post in the comments). Please send us two (2) of your favorites, only one (1) of which can be your own work (or you can send two [2] that belong to other poets). Nominated poems must have been published in a paper, journal, or contest in 2023. Haiku and senryu that are self-published or appear on personal blogs are ineligible. 

Please submit your nominations no later than year’s end. Supply complete citations: journal name, volume, and number, or complete contest information (no acronyms). 

Previous award recipients are displayed in the Touchstone Archive.

You can find more information on eligibility and how to submit nominations on the Touchstone Award for Individual Poems home page. 

Notes:

Please familiarize yourselves with the panelists as any poems nominated for these folks are ineligible and are removed from the list.

All duplicate nominations are culled, so having a poem of your own nominated more than once serves no purpose.

Please refrain from sending in multiple nomination forms. All nominations are tracked by our database. Any nominations beyond those permitted will be deleted and only the first will be counted.

We look forward to seeing your nominations soon!

Robin Smith

Coordinator, Touchstone Award for Individual Poems