Kat Lehmann — Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2025

Kat Lehmann is the recipient of a Touchstone Distinguished Books Award for 2025 for the volume,

no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song. (Studio City, CA: Rattle 2025).

Commentary from the Panel:

Kat Lehmann’s no matter how it ends a bluebird’ song  has already garnered accolades from the poetry world having received the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize. It’s easy to see why this collection deserves notice and praise. Lehmann  explores the terrain of illness, loss, grief and recovery, subjects that have been written about across genres for generations. In lesser hands, the depiction of these human experiences risks becoming sentimental, cliché or redundant. Lehmann avoids these pitfalls through her skillful attention to the elements of poetry: sound, rhythm, word choice, imagery.

This haiku memoir travels the path from illness to recovery. Lehmann deftly pairs the natural world with life-changing experiences.

two

  days

after

   the

first

    dose

the

   world

falls

   into

starlings

trapped in a body the star a sky wanders

The pairings are unexpected, often startling, and accomplish what all good poetry accomplishes: the images give the reader an intellectual, physical, and emotional experience, a moment the reader can reside in and wonder what it is like to be trapped in a body while the surrounding universe continues to spin.

Nuance and beauty abound in these pages alongside heart wrenching moments.

beyond the bed

a lilt of voices live

my former life

This poem invites us to read it out loud and fully appreciate its sound. The masterful use of rhythm, assonance and alliteration becomes its own pairing against the devastating losses and isolation of illness. Lehman’s haiku and monoku are wonderfully understated. The reader is never told how to feel or what to think. Throughout, we’re kept interested in Lehman’s journey through unusual yet meaningful juxtapositions.

ICD

codes

the

taxonomy

of 

raptors

river cloud

the X of this body

unsolvable

One of the many strengths of this collection is that it offers no answers about life, pain, illness or loss. The narrative dwells in uncertainty. Even hope and the future are held lightly. This perspective is particularly refreshing, courageous and brings a universality to each poem.

is it ok to hope an ocean road

but what if it all works out cherry blossoms

Recovery is presented as open-ended, another journey to embark upon. no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song  is compelling and rife with original images that do not soothe or instruct. Instead, we’re offered the present moment exactly as it is.

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.