Poet Profile

Hortensia Anderson

Hortensia Anderson was born and lived most of her life in New York City. Her education included a BA double in English and Film Studies/Semiotics at Pitzer College, a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language at Hunter College, a MA in English (Poetics) from NYU, Doctoral coursework in Linguistics at City University NY Graduate Center, and a four-year Clinical Fellowship from Gestalt Associates in Psychotherapy. Since 1981, she was on dialysis and in 2009 she survived a bout with cancer. Her courage and her creative spirit inspired all who knew her. She was haibun editor for moonset (2007 -2009) and a judge for the Haiku Society of America's Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition (2005, 2006). Her work has been in numerous journals including Frogpond, The Heron's Nest, Ribbons, Simply Haiku, The Mainichi Daily News, Asahi Haikuist Network, tinywords, Lynx, Haijinx, Hermitage, Woodnotes, South by Southeast, Modern English Tanka Quarterly, Contemporary Haibun, Haibun Today, Prune Juice, Ambrosia, Concise Delight, Modern Tanka and Haibun Prose, and moonset.

Awards and Other Honors:

Hortensia received many awards and other honors, including Best of 2002: Haiku in English, The Mainichi Daily News; 5th Annual Suruga Baika Winner; Honorable Mention, Mainichi Contest (2003); Tanka Splendor Awards (2003, 2004); and Third Prize, Kusamakura (2004). Her work has been selected to appear in various anthologies, including edge of light: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2003 (Red Moon Press, 2004), dust of summers: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2007 (Red Moon Press, 2008); Rose Haiku for Flower Lovers and Gardeners (Price-Patterson, Ltd., 2005); The Five-Hole Flute (MET Press, 2006); The Tanka Prose Anthology (MET Press, 2008); Ash Moon Anthology: Poems on Aging (Lulu Press, 2008); and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka (MET Press, 2009).

Books Published:

Trust (fly-by-night press, 1994) [ISBN 0-9639585-1-8]; The Plenitude of Emptiness: Collected Haibun [with an introduction by Jim Kacian] (Darlington Richards through lulu.com, 2010). Chapbooks: Georgia on My Mind (Imp Press, 1992); Awareness of Rose (Imp Press, 1993); Beg, Borrow or Steal (Betty Elyse Press, 1994); Living in Frida's Body (Imp Press, 1995).

spring thaw―
the stream parts to embrace
the stone

alone tonight―
the calla lily curves
into shadow

loneliness―
a piece of driftwood
keeps returning

icicles―
the sun drips into
pools of light

summer solstice―
a lizard on the sundial
at two o'clock

alone
with the diagnosis
I hold my own hand

Credits:

"spring thaw" - Best of 2002: Haiku in English, The Mainichi Daily News; "loneliness" - The Heron's Nest IV:7 (2002); Third Runner-up: The Heron's Nest Valentine Awards (2003); edge of light: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2003 (Red Moon Press, 2004); "summer solstice" Ehime: One Hundred Haiku (International Haiku Convention, 2001); "alone tonight" - Editor's Choice: The Heron's Nest V:10 (2003); "icicles" - Frogpond vol. 32:2 (2009); "alone" - Frogpond 30:2 (2007); dust of summers: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2007 (Red Moon Press, 2008).