Brad Bennett, a former third-grade teacher for 25 years, now teaches haiku to adults. He was Haiku and Senryu Editor of Frogpondfrom 2021-2023 and has judged the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards and the Nicholas Virgilio Haiku and Senryu Competition. Brad was Poet-in-Residence at Acadia National Park in Maine during the summer of 2021. He has been a co-director of the Haiku Circle since 2022. Brad is a Broadmoor Haiku Collective, Haiku Poets of Northern California, and the Sugar Maple Haiku Group member.
Awards and Other Honors:
Touchstone Distinguished Book Award, a drop of pond (2016); Shortlisted, Touchstone Distinguished Book Award, a turn in the river (2019); Honorable Mention, Touchstone Distinguished Book Award and Honorable Mention, Merit Book Award, a box of feathers (2022).
Featured Poet, Mann Library Daily Haiku Page (September 2014); Featured Poet, Cattails (January 2015); “Spotlight,” Modern Haiku 47.1; “Focus Poet,” Presence 70; poems appeared in A New Resonance 9: Emerging Voices in English-language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2015); poems appeared in Echoes 2: The New Resonance Haiku Poets 1999-2017 (Red Moon Press, 2018); poems and essays appeared in Red Moon Press anthologies (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022); poems appeared in Haiku 2020, Haiku 2021, Haiku 2022, Haiku 2023 (Modern Haiku Press); poems appeared in Prune Juice Book of Senryu: Celebrating 10 Years (2009-2019) (Prune Juice, 2020); poems appeared in Biting the Sun: Twenty-Five Years of the Boston Haiku Society (Boston Haiku Society, 2014); poems appeared in what weathers, what returns: An Anthology of the Broadmoor Haiku Collective (Red Moon Press, 2023); poems featured on “Haiku Path,” Holden Arboretum, Kirtland, OH (2018), “Words In Bloom: A Year of Haiku,” Chicago Botanic Garden (2020), “Haiku in Hadley,” Hadley, MA (2020), “Monte Sano State Haiku Path,” Huntsville, AL (2022), and “Hueston Woods Haiku Trail,” College Corner, OH (2023).
First Place, San Francisco International Senryu Competition, Haiku Poets of Northern California (2014); First Prize, Kaji Aso Studio International Haiku Contest (2018); First Prize, Martin Lucas Haiku Award (2019, 2020); First Prize, United Nations International School Haiku Contest (2020, 2022); First Place, Plum’s Haiku Competition (2022); First Place, Japan Fair Haiku Contest (2022); Second Prize, Kaji Aso Studio International Haiku Contest (2013); Third Place, United Haiku and Tanka Society “AHA” Contest (2016); Third Place, San Francisco International Haiku Competition, Haiku Poets of Northern California (2017); Third Place, United Haiku and Tanka Society “AHA” Contest (2018); Third Place, “Save Our World Contest,” Lyrical Passion Poetry E-zine, (2020); Third Place, Porad Award (2020); Third Place, Henderson Award (2021); Third Place, Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (2022); Shortlisted, Touchstone Award for Individual Poems (2016); “Sunset Selection,” Folded Word Press Equinox Series (2018); Hexapod Haiku Laureate, Hexapod Haiku Challenge (2020); The Heron’s Nest Award (2021).
Honorable Mention/Runner Up/Commended in the following Contests and Awards: The Heron’s Nest Award (June 2011); Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition (2013, 2014, 2015, 2021); Haiku North America Haiku Contest (2013); Autumn Moon Haiku Contest, Bangor Haiku Group (2013); Kaji Aso Studio International Haiku and Senryu Contest (2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020); Porad Award Contest (2015, 2016); Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku International Contest (2015, 2017); Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition (2016); Golden Haiku Contest (2017, 2018, 2021, 2023); Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (2018); San Francisco International Haiku Competition, Haiku Poets of Northern California (2019); Brady Senryu Contest (2019); United Haiku and Tanka Society “AHA” Contest (2020); Betty Drevniok Award (2020); Hexapod Haiku Challenge (2020, 2021); Katikati Haiku Contest (2021); Haiku International Association Haiku Contest (2021); United Nations International School Haiku Contest (2022).
Books Published:
a drop of pond (Red Moon Press, 2016); a turn in the river (Red Moon Press, 2019); a box of feathers (Red Moon Press, 2022).
Essays Published: “Children’s Haiku Books: An Annotated Bibliography,” Modern Haiku vol. 46.3 Autumn 2015; “Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia,” Modern Haiku vol. 52.1 Winter - Spring 2021; “Euphony in Haiku,” Modern Haiku vol. 53.1 Winter - Spring 2022; “Repetition in Haiku,” Frogpond vol. 46.1 Winter 2023; “Prepositions in Haiku,” Modern Haiku vol. 54.1 Winter - Spring 2023.
Selected Work
a drop of pond
at the end of a beak
setting sun
summer sky
how could nothing
be so blue
snow season
brushing up
on my conifers
from my desk inside a cardinal
sunlit moss
a sit-awhile bench
in the silver maples
summer’s end
a box of feathers
for show and tell
Credits:
First publication: "a drop of pond” - The Heron’s Nest vol. XIII No. 2 (June 2011); “summer sky” – Porad Award (2020); “snow season” – The Heron’s Nest Vol. XXIII, No. 1 (March 2021); “from my desk” – Modern Haiku vol. 53.2 Summer 2022; “sunlit moss” – The Tenth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards (2022); “summer’s end” – Kingfisher #4, October 2021.
