Amy Losak is a veteran public relations professional specializing in healthcare and science media relations. After decades of excelling at top PR agencies in New York City, today Amy freelances and consults. Among her current clients is the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. She also has worked on projects for the National Alliance for Caregiving, the University of Chicago, Spectrum Works (a New Jersey nonprofit which trains individuals with autism for jobs and many other organizations). Amy’s mother, Sydell Rosenberg , was a New York teacher and published writer, and a charter member of the Haiku Society of America in 1968. After Syd’s unexpected death in 1996, her family decided to publish one of her poetry manuscripts for children. One of Syd’s long-held dreams had been to publish a picture book.
In 2018, Penny Candy Books released Syd’s H Is For Haiku: A Treasury of Haiku from A to Z, with illustrations by Sawsan Chalabi. This collection consists of 26 “city haiku”; a number were first published decades ago in leading journals. It also includes a short essay by Sydell which first appeared in Wind Chimes #3, 1981, and a new introduction by Amy. H Is For Haiku is being honored by the National Council for Teachers of English as a “Notable Poetry Book” in 2019. It also was a finalist for a 2019 Cybils Award in the Poetry category (the Cybils is an organization of industry professionals in children’s literature, including librarians and teachers). Amy also is a member of a group of 18 award-winning Jewish children’s authors and illustrators, all women, called The Book Meshuggenahs (they also are on Linked In, Twitter, and Instagram).Their books are available everywhere. They also have their own distributor, Interabang Books. Thanks to Syd’s influence and the encouragement of family, friends, co-workers, and the haiku community, Amy started writing haiku and senryu several years ago. Some of her work has been published. She is now at work on a second “mother-daughter” haiku picture book.
Selected Work
Washington Square Park
a yellow umbrella
walking alone
forsythia bush
chirping
yellow
forest clearing
the flute-song of a thrush
joins the camp fire
on the wings
of starlings . . .
morning moon
midtown fountain
the dancer pirouettes
with a pigeon
change of tenants
imprint of the mezuzah
on the front door frame
Credits:
“Washington Square Park” - Frogpond, Vol. 42.2, Spring-Summer 2019; “forsythia bush“ - The Holden Arboretum Haiku Path, Spring 2018; “forest clearing“ - Asahi Haikuist Network, Dec. 7, 2018; “on the wings“ - Hedgerow #125, Autumn 2018; “midtown fountain“ - The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XIX, No. 3, Sept. 2017; “change of tenants“ - Modern Haiku, Vol. 48.2, Summer 2017.
