Poet Profile

Terry Ann Carter

Terry Ann Carter is the author of five haiku chapbooks and four collections of longer poetry. An international award-winning haiku poet, she participated in the 2004 Basho Festival, in Ueno, Japan, and has served Haiku Canada as President since 2012. She was the Random Acts of Poetry poet for Ottawa 2005 – 2010. A collection of small poems, such green (pendas poets, 2005) and road trip: more latte than turquoise from ottawa to santa fe (counting coup press, new mexico, 2008) were published in limited hand-made editions and exhibited in International Book Art Fairs in Santa Fe and San Francisco. Terry Ann is passionate about her role as an educator, and in 2011 published a teacher’s guide to writing haiku and related forms. She is currently working on a companion guide for elementary school teachers. Terry Ann is committed to poetry in service to the global community and has given haiku and small book making workshops in France, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Panama, Canada and the U.S. She organized four Haiku Canada conferences at Carleton University , Ottawa, and the Haiku North America conference at the National Library and Archives, Ottawa. She was the founder of Kado Ottawa (a haiku group that still meets seasonally and launches a broadsheet each spring at the Japanese Embassy; and, after her move to Victoria in 2011, started Haiku Arbutus, a group of poets interested in learning more about haiku. Haiku Arbutus also meets seasonally at the Coast Collective Art Centre, 3221 Heatherbell Road, Victoria. Presently, Terry Ann teaches Japanese literary forms and small book making at Royal Roads University, Victoria. With haiku poet Carole MacRury, she will be hosting the Haiku Canada conference in May, 2015.

Awards and Other Honors: Origami Crane Award "Best Poem" (2010); Lucy Maud Montgomery Award [haiku] (2008); First Place [haiku], Vancouver International Cherry Blossom Festival (2007);  Contest judge, Vancouver International Cherry Blossom Festival (2013); Honorable Mention, Haiku International Association (Japan, 2007); First Place, The Hawaii Education Association Haiku Contest (2003); First Place, Basho Festival Contest (Japan, 2002); First place - "people's choice" R.H. Blyth Award [haiku] (Japan, 2002); First place, Canadian Authors Association [haiku] (2002); Honorable Mention, Betty Drevniok Award (1998 and 2001); First place, Montreal International Haiku Festival (2001). Her collection of longer poetry A Crazy Man Thinks He’s Ernest in Paris (Black Moss Press, 2010) was shortlisted for the Archibald Lampman Award, and Day Moon Rising ( Black Moss Press 2012) was shortlisted for the Acorn Plantos People’s Choice Award.

Books Published:       Selected Publications: Anapanasati (chapbook, Cranberry Tree Press, 1997); Waiting for Julia (Third Eye Press, 1999); Transplanted (Borealis Press, 2006); Carpe diem: Anthologie canadienne du haïku / Canadian anthology of haiku (Les Éditions David / Borealis Press, 2008); A Crazy Man Thinks he's Ernest in Paris (Black Moss, 2010); Lighting the Global Lantern: A Teachers Guide to Writing Haiku and Related Literary Forms (Wintergreen Studios Press, 2011); A Monk’s Fine Robes: haiku from Cambodia (Leaf Press, 2011); Now You Know (chapbook, King’s Road Press, 2011); Day Moon Rising (Black Moss Press, 2012); Hallelujah (Buschekbooks, 2012); Hue: A Day At Butchart Gardens (Leaf press, 2014).      Selected Anthologies: Poetry Express (Nelson, Canada, 1993); The Free Verse Anthology (Ottawa, 1993); Spring Fever (W)rites of Spring (League of Canadian Poets, 1997); Waiting For You To Speak (Un Mon America, 1999); No Choice But to Trust (Un Mon America, 2000); Body Language: A Head to Toe Anthology (Black Moss Press, 2002); Soundings (BuchekBooks, 2005); Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam Era (Seraphim Editions, 2008); Pith &Wry Canadian Poetry (ed. by Susan McMaster, Scrivener Press, 2010); Whiskey Sour: Poetry from Windsor, Ontario (Black Moss 2012); Window Fishing: The Night We Caught Beatlemania (Hidden Brook Press, 2014).

alone in Tokyo
even the chopsticks
in pairs

early dusk
starlings swerve
through the sound of temple bells

cloudless
the outstretched palms
of begging children

end of summer
the Great Blue Heron stretches
into its shadow

underground parking
no space 
for the moon

winter dusk
in my mother’s log cabin quilt
my father’s red shirt

Credits: "alone in Tokyo" - Lighting the Global Lantern: A Teachers Guide to Writing Haiku and Related Literary Forms (Wintergreen Studios Press, 2011); "cloudless" - A Monk’s Fine Robes: Haiku from Cambodia (Leaf Press, 2011); "underground parking" - R. H. Blyth People’s Choice Award (2002); "early dusk" - Day Moon Rising (Black Moss Press, 2012); "end of summer" - Now You Know (King’s Road Press, 2011); "winter dusk" - Carpe diem: Anthologie canadienne du haïku / Canadian anthology of haiku (Les Éditions David / Borealis Press, 2008).