Poet Profile

Billie Wilson

Billie Wilson spent her childhood in rural Indiana, moving to Alaska in 1962. Her first attempts at writing haiku were in the 1960s, but she credits mentoring by Robert Spiess, and the simultaneous discovery of the thriving haiku community outside Alaska in 1997, with inspiring a deeper appreciation of the haiku potential and an ever-increasing desire to keep learning more. Billie was an Associate Editor of The Heron's Nest from 2011 through 2017. For many years, she served as the Haiku Society of America's Regional Coordinator for Alaska. From 2009-2018, she helped create and care for The Haiku Foundation's Haiku Registry.

Awards and Other Honors:

Some of Billie's awards and other honors include: First Place, the Harold G. Henderson Award (Haiku Society of America, 2003); First Place, the Gerald Brady Memorial Award (Haiku Society of America, 2001); Second Place, the Harold G. Henderson Award (Haiku Society of America, 2002); The Heron's Nest Readers' Choice Poem of the Year (2006); The Heron's Nest Award (December 2002); First Runner-up (Readers' and Editors' Choice), The Heron's Nest Valentine Awards (2003); The Heron's Nest Award VIII:4 (2006); An Editors' Choice, The Heron's Nest VI:3 (2004); Special Mention, The Heron's Nest Sixth Annual Valentine Awards (2005);a James W. Hackett Personal Haiku Selection in World Haiku Review (May 2001); a Certificate for Merit from the Japan Society on Water Environment (2001); Highly Commended, the British Haiku Society James W. Hackett International Haiku Award (2001); Honorable Mention, Basho 360th Anniversary Contest, MIE Times, (September 2004); First Place (Season Word), Hawaii Education Assn. (2002); Third Honorable Mention, The 2010 Porad Award (Haiku Northwest and the Washington Poets Association, 2010); and Finalist,Penumbra 2002. She is one of 16 poets featured in A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku (Red Moon Press, 2003), followed by echoes 1 (Red Moon Press, 2007). A haibun appears in stone frog: American Haibun & Haiga, Volume 2 (Red Moon Press, 2001). A haiku was selected for commentary by Lee Gurga in his book Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Modern Haiku Press, 2003), another by A.C. Missias for commentary in A Loose Thread: Selected poems from 10 years of Acorn (Acorn Supplement #5, 2008), and one was selected for the cover of the Winter 2002 issue of Mayfly as best-of-issue haiga award. She was a guest reader at the Haiku Poets of Northern California's (HPNC) Two Autumns Reading and a Guest Poet for the Upstate Dim Sum haiku journal (2008). Her haiku appear in several of the annual "best-of-year" English-language anthologies published by Red Moon Press. She was a featured poet on the Cornell University's Mann Library Daily Haiku Web site for the month of June 2008. Her haiku have been monthly winners or runners-up for various editions of The Haiku Calendar (Snapshot Press). A haibun was chosen as favorite of issue, Modern Haiku XXXI:1 (2000), She has also collaborated with other haiku poets in writing prizewinning renku and rengay. Several haiku were selected to appear (with Croation translations) in Gospar konj/ The Master Horse [Diogenova mala svjetska haiku antologija o konju / Diogen A Little World Anthology of Haiku Poetry About Horse] (Einhorn Verlag, Switzerland, 2013) [Sabrala, uredila i prevela / Collected, edited and translated by Đurđa Vukelić-Rozić; http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/622315]. She is one of 45 poets whose work was selected for the video/computer game Haiku Journey. Three haiku were selected to appear in Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013). Fifteen haiku were selected to appear in Where the River Goes: The Nature Tradition in English-Language Haiku [edited by Allan Burns] (Snapshot Press, 2013)); work selected for Contemporary World Haiku: A Vast Sky [edited by Bruce Ross] (Tuttle Publishing).

Books Published:

Billie assisted in producing the book-with-CD, Raku Teapot: Haiku (Raku Teapot Press, 2003), an anthology of haiku written by several poets who were members of an online haiku list. Her first book of haiku is forthcoming from Snapshot Press.

wind from a raven's wing
brushes my arm
shadows on snow

winter wind
a cradlesong sung
in an ancient tongue

deer tracks
through the meadowsweet
first frost

retreating glacier--
how long since we've heard
the black wolf's song

rattlesnake country--
shadows of storm clouds
darken the foothills

trail's end
the taste of wild onion
still sharp on my tongue

Credits:

"wind from a raven's wing" - Acorn 22 (2009); "deer tracks" - Mariposa 13 (2005); Honorable Mention, Basho 360th Anniversary Contest, MIE Times, (September 2004); Where the River Goes: The Nature Tradition in English-Language Haiku [edited by Allan Burns] (Snapshot Press, 2013); "rattlesnake country" - Mariposa 19 (2008); "winter wind" - The Heron's Nest Award VIII:4 (2006), Readers' Choice Poem of the Year, The Heron's Nest annual anthology for Vol. VIII (2007), Modern Haiku 38:3 (2007) (review of annual anthology), echoes 1 (Red Moon Press, 2007); Riverwind 30 (Hocking College, Nelsonville, OH, 2010); "retreating glacier" - Modern Haiku 38:1 (2007), echoes 1 (Red Moon Press, 2007), Moonlight Changing Direction (HPNC Two Autumns Press, 2008 - Guest Reader); Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years [edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland, and Allan Burns] (W.W. Norton and Company, 2013); Where the River Goes: The Nature Tradition in English-Language Haiku [edited by Allan Burns] (Snapshot Press, 2013); "trail's end" - The Heron's Nest VI:3 (2005).