Poet Profile

Hilary Tann

Hilary Tann spent her childhood in the coal-mining valleys of South Wales. After graduate study at Princeton, she settled in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains where she was a published composer and Professor of Music at Union College in Schenectady, NY. She was a founding member of the Route 9 Haiku Group (Yu Chang, Tom Clausen, and John Stevenson) which publishes the biannual anthology of haiku and senryu, Upstate Dim Sum . Her work has appeared in various publications, including 20 issues of Upstate Dim Sum (2001-2010); Mann Library Archive (December 2008); The Onawa Poems 1999-2008 (Ship Pond Press, 2009); and Another Country: Haiku Poetry From Wales [ed. Nigel Jenkins, Ken Jones, Lynne Rees] (Gomer Press, 2011).

“Hilary Tann, a Welsh-born composer known for the lyricism and spirituality of her music and for her devotion to students over four decades of teaching at Union College in Schenectady, died suddenly Wednesday Feb. 8, 2023 at home, according to her husband, David Bullard. A cause of death was not immediately available” (…) (Steve Barnes, Times Union on Feb. 10, 2023).

Awards and Other Honors:

Ehime Prefecture Shimanami Kaido '99 (2nd Prize); The Heron's Nest Award IV:10 (2002); Einbond Renku Competition, Grand Prize, 2003 (with Yu Chang, John Stevenson, and Paul MacNeil), First Honorable Mention 2004, and Second Honorable Mention 2009); Haiku Society of America Museum of Haiku Literature Award, Frogpond XXVIII:3 (2006).

first warm day
looking for eagles
and finding the sky

mountain stillness—
the loon call
held by the lake

calling home—
the colour of mother's voice
before her words

summer's end
the wisteria
doubles back

of the old church
oak, rhododendron,
and yew

winter grasses
a break in our
interconnectedness

after sunset . . .
the shapes
of the clouds

sweet grapes
the conversation passes
between friends

approaching solstice
a shaft of light
finds summer

season’s end
the ice-fishing tracks
fill with water

Credits:

"first warm day" - Upstate Dim Sum 2003/II; "calling home" - The Heron's Nest IX:4 (2007); dust of summers: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2007 (Red Moon Press, 2008); Upstate Dim Sum 2008/I; "of the old church" - Frogpond vol. XXVIII:1, 2005; Upstate Dim Sum 2005/I; "mountain stillness" - The Heron's Nest vol. VIII:4 (2006); big sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2006 (Red Moon Press 2007); Upstate Dim Sum 2007/I; "summer's end" - The Heron's Nest vol. XII:4 (2010); "winter grasses" - The Heron's Nest vol. XII:2 (2010); “after sunset” – Frogpond vol. XXVIII:3, 2005 “sweet grapes” – The Onawa Poems, 1999–2008, edited by Paul W. MacNeil (Monson, Maine: Ship Pond Press, 2009); “approaching solstice” – Upstate Dim Sum Autumn 2020: 20th Anniversary Issue; “broken chords” – Upstate Dim Sum Autumn 2021; “season’s end” – Upstate Dim Sum Spring 2022.

Sources Biography: Hilary Tann .