Poet Profile

Karina M. Young

A member of Haiku Poets of Northern California and Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Karina M. Young has been writing and publishing in international haiku and tanka journals and anthologies since 2000. Eucalyptus Wind, her first full-length collection of haiku, was published in 2017 by Red Moon Press. Through the Lupines, a chapbook of her haiku, was a winner of The Snapshot Press eChapbook Award 2016 and was published in 2018. Young lives in Salinas, California, with her spouse and two dogs. She recently completed her first Buson 100 challenge.

Awards and Other Honors: Young’s work has been included in several anthologies, including The Tanka Anthology (Red Moon Press, 2003), Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence, and Human Rights Violation (Kamesan Books, 2013), and Wishbone Moon (Jacar Press, 2018).
Some of her poems have won awards: “Twin Towers” (Third Prize Winner—2001 San Francisco International Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka Contest); Through the Lupines (Winner — The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards 2016); “my sister” [tanka] (First Prize, tied — 2016 San Francisco International Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka Contest); “in lieu of ‹hello›” (Honorable Mention—Yuki Teikei Haiku Society’s 2017 Tokutomi Haiku Contest); “depth of winter” (Shortlisted for Touchstone Award for Individual Poems 2017); “From Branch to Branch” [renku with eight other poets] (Grand Prize—2018 HSA Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition).

Books Published: Eucalyptus Wind - Red Moon Press, 2017 and Through the Lupines - Snapshot Press, 2018 (online chapbook).

wind in the grass
all the world
turned hawk

the only sound
after sunset
lemon blossoms

summer twilight
the train inside
the river’s bend

towering clouds
the blue black
of a raven’s beak

day’s end
the unanswered call
of a mourning dove

our trains depart
on different tracks
the autumn sky

Credits: “wind in the grass” – The Heron’s Nest Vol. XX, No. 2:June 2018; “the only sound” – Mariposa issue 8 Spring/Summer 2003; Wishbone Moon, Jacar Press, 2018 (eds. Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton & Kala Ramesh); “summer twilight” – The Heron’s Nest Vol. XX, No. 1: March 2018; “towering clouds” – The Heron’s Nest Vol. XX, Number 1: March 2018; “day’s end” – Acorn #37, Fall 2016; Eucalyptus Wind, Red Moon Press, 2017; “our trains depart” – Modern Haiku 49.1,Spring 2018.