Poet Profile

Xenia Tran

Xenia is a linguist, artist, writer, poet, and photographer who lives with her husband and adopted animals in the Scottish Highlands. She writes haiku, haibun, tanka, tanka prose, and tanka sequences as well as western poetry forms and free verse poetry.
She takes her inspiration from nature, love, loss, and anything that nudges her to capture the moment in image and word.
Her work has appeared in print and online journals, anthologies, calendars, art installations, and videos, as well as on radio and television. In addition, she has published two full-length collections in aid of charities close to her heart.
Xenia is a member of the Haiku Society of America, the Tanka Society of America, Haiku Kring Nederland (Dutch Haiku Association), and a patron of Poetry Ireland.

Awards and Other Honors:

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2020, 2023, and 2024 Haiku Invitational – Honorable Mentions (International Section); 22nd (2020) and 24th (2022) HIA Contest – Honorable Mentions. Xenia was selected by Krzysztof Kokot as one of his European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, respectively.

Books Published:

Sharing Our Horizon – Poems and Photographs by Xenia Tran (published in aid of animal rehoming charities); published by: Holistic Linguistics, Nairn, UK (2018); Between Heather and Grass – Poems and Photographs by Xenia Tran (published in aid of Children with Cancer UK and animal rehoming charities), published by: Holistic Linguistics, Nairn, UK (2019).

eyes so blue
the child’s first glimpse
of the sea

summer breeze
the grass waves at anyone
who passes

autumn moon
my first sixty years
of wandering

evening snow
one by one she packs
the bare branches

ah how the rowan
flames into beauty
october sun

fading sun . . .
Buddha’s hand
raised in the distance

Credits:

“eyes so blue” – Presence Issue #72, March 2022; “summer breeze” – HaikuKATHA Issue 10, August 2022; “autumn moon” – haikuKATHA Issue 13, Nov. 2022; “evening snow” – The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 30, 2022; “ah how the rowan” – Under the Bashō, Nov. 5, 2023; “fading sun” – Autumn Moon Haiku Journal Vol. 8:2, Spring/Summer 2025.