Poet Profile

Victor Ortiz

Victor Ortiz, Pushcart Prize nominee, has, until 2018, spent most of his life in southern California, where he earned his Ph.D. in Classics from UCLA and met his wife Mimi, a teacher and artist. Many years ago, he discovered haiku while thinking about how to engage his Latin students in using Latin creatively. He was a panel member of the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award (2020-2023) and served as the Washington Regional coordinator for the Haiku Society of America (2022). He curated the February 2022 edition of The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku of the Day feature.

Awards and Other Honors:

New Resonance 14 (2025); Haiku Category: Fourth Place, Alterku Category/Prose Poem: Honorable Mention, The Heliosparrow Haiku Frontier Awards (2025); Haiku Category: Honorable Mention, Alterku Category: three Honorable Mentions, including Special Award: Most Creative Cut Award, The Heliosparrow Haiku Frontier Awards (2024); Haiku 21 and Haiku 21.2 and Haiku 2015, 2020 - 2025 (Modern Haiku Press, 2011, 2015, 2020 - 2025); The Red Moon Anthology of English Language Haiku (2004, 2006, 2011, 2019, 2020, 2021); Editor’s Choice, The Heron’s Nest Award XXI.1 (2019); The Heron’s Nest Poem and Poet of the Year [Reader’s Choice] Awards (2019); The Wonder Code (2017); Honorable Mention, Second Annual Jane Reichhold Haiga Contest (2017); Best of Issue, Modern Haiku 47.3 (2016); work selected for Nest Feathers: Selected Haiku from the First 15 Years of The Heron’s Nest (2015); Honorable Mention, Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award 2013, [for Into Borrego Valley] (2013); Two Autumns Reading: San Francisco, CA, August 22, 2010 [one of four featured readers]; Runner-up, Haiku Now! International Haiku Contest, Traditional Category [Billy Collins, judge] (The Haiku Foundation, 2010); Honorable Mention, Mainichi Daily Newspaper 12th and 21st Annual Haiku Contests (2008, 2018); Commended, Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition (2006); The Scorpion Prize, Roadrunner Haiku Journal VI:3 (2006); Runner-up Editors' Choice, The Heron's Nest VII: 3 (2005); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest Valentine Awards (2002).

Books Published:

gone/to seed (4th annual haiku contest runner up, Backbone Press 2024); Into Borrego Valley (Red Moon Press 2012); Into Breath (Red Moon Press 2002); Butterfly Dreams (responsive haiku with mezzotint and book artist Mikio Watanabe, Nantes, France 2019); Mirage (responsive haiku with mezzotint and book artist Mikio Watanabe, Nantes, France 2017); Rippling Fragrance (responsive haiku with mezzotint and book artist Mikio Watanabe, Nantes, France 2015); Hidden from Moonlight (responsive haiku with mezzotint and book artist Mikio Watanabe, Nantes, France 2012).

no one listens like a dandelion

look down for cosmos most roots form worlds

the lingering scent
of sharpened pencils
spring night

inside a prayer the scent of rain

                         sin 
                       king
                           in  
                              to
                            th
                               e
                               ear 
                            th
                              MR
                           I

windy ridge
a rusty bed frame
in winter light

Credits:

"no one" – NOON: Journal of the Short Poem Issues 21 & 22 (Aug 2022); "look down" – Heliosparrow Poetry Journal (Oct 27, 2020); "the lingering scent" – Modern Haiku 47.3 (Autumn 2016) [Best of Issue Award, announced in Modern Haiku 48.1 (Winter-Spring 2017)]; "inside" – Editor’s Choice, The Heron’s Nest Award XXI:1 (2019) [Poem of the Year Reader’s Choice Award]; "sin king" – Heliosparrow Poetry Journal (July 7, 2023); "windy ridge" – Scorpion Prize, Roadrunner Haiku Journal VI:3 (2006).