Poet Profile

Sylvia Forges-Ryan

Sylvia Forges-Ryan is a former Editor of Frogpond, the international journal of the Haiku Society of America. Her poems have been published in many countries and on six continents. Writing in various Japanese forms, she has won many international prizes, including the Harold G. Henderson Award from the Haiku Society of America, the R.H. Blyth Award from the World Haiku Association, the Grand Prix from the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, the Azsacra Poetry Award from the Taj Mahal Review in India, and First Prizes in the Mainichi Times Contest in Tokyo, the California Ukiah Festival, and the Key West Robert Frost Haiku Competition.
She has published three books: Take a Deep Breath, the Haiku Way to Inner Peace, co-authored with her husband, Edward R. Ryan, PhD, was cited by poet, editor, and translator Jane Reichhold as “the perfect haiku book,” and was given an Honorable Mention from the World Haiku Review. What Light There Is was described by Susumu Takiguchi, World Haiku Editor, as “One of the best books of haiku ever produced in English, a treasure.” In addition, the book was awarded a Distinguished Touchstone Award HM from the Haiku Foundation. Both books, along with Side by Side Poems Prints, have been selected for permanent inclusion in the American Literature Collection of the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University.
For several years Forges-Ryan was a member of a political activist performance troupe, Outcry for Justice, in which she read her poetry in New York City at the Brecht Forum and The Theater for a New City, the Long Wharf Second Stage in New Haven, and other venues in the Northeast. She was also invited to teach a haiku class at Harvard and to present a lecture on haiku poetry at Yale’s Center for Independent Study. In addition, she was a frequent guest on Connecticut Public Radio.
Sometimes publishing in longer forms, Forges-Ryan was awarded a Fellowship by Summer Literary Seminars in 2006 to study poetry in St. Petersburg, Russia. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature from Bucknell University and an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University. Born in New York City, she has lived in North Haven, CT, for many years and is the mother of two children.

Awards and Other Honors:

To kick off 2012 National Poetry Month, The New Haven Register published a feature story about Sylvia and created a video of her reading some of her haiku [use search engine to find both online]. Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace selected for inclusion in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Collection of American Literature, Yale University Library (2011); Finalist, Kusamakura Haiku Competition (2010); Finalist, Penumbra Haiku Contest (2009); First Prize, Key West Robert Frost Haiku Contest (2008); First Prize, Ukiah Haiku Festival [judged by Jane Reichhold] (2008); Finalist, Kusamakura Haiku Competition (2008); Commended, WhiteLotus Haiku Competition (2008); Honorable Mention, San Francisco International Tanka Contest (2007); Second Prize, Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry [judged by Coleman Barks] (2007); Fellowship, Summer Literary Seminars Poetry Contest [judged by Robert Hass, to study poetry for 2 weeks in St. Petersburg, Russia] (2006); International Merit Award, Atlanta Review Poetry Contest (2006); First, Second, and Third Prizes, Italian-American Historical Society of Connecticut Poetry Contest [judged by Vivian Shipley] (2005); Grand Prix Poetry Prize, Atomic Bomb Memorial Committee, Kyoto, Japan (2005); Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings Contest, Poetry (2005); Poetry Finalist, Dogwood Review [judged by A.E. Stallings] (2004: Finalist, Connecticut Poetry Festival Competition [judged by Charles Rafferty] (2003); First Prize, R.H.Blyth Award, World Haiku Society (2003); Second and Third Prizes, Americas Review Poetry Contest [judged by Jane Hirshfield] (2003); Finalist, New Millennium Twentieth Century Poetry Writing Prize (2000); Finalist, Comstock Review Poetry Contest [judged by Stephen Dobyns] (2000); Honorable Mention, Newburyport Art Association Poetry Contest (2000); Second Prize, Southern Connecticut University Poetry Contest [judged by Kathleen Halme] (1999); Finalist, Pacific Echo Poetry (1999); International Merit Award, Atlanta Review Poetry Contest (1999); Honorable Mention, Writers Digest Poetry Contest [for both Rhyming and Non-Rhyming Poetry] (1997); First Prize, Harold G. Henderson Award, Haiku Society of America (1993); Museum of Haiku Literature Award (Tokyo, 1989); Finalist, Japan Airlines Haiku Contest (1988); Second Prize, Mainichi Times International Haiku Contest, (Tokyo, 1987); First Prize, Mainichi Times International Haiku Contest (Tokyo, 1986). Her work has appeared in many journals, books, and other publications worldwide, including:
Anthologies: Essential Love: Poems about Mothers and Fathers, Daughters and Sons; The Unitarian Universalist Poets: A Contemporary Survey; Prayers to Protest; inside the mirror: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku2005; Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac; Haiku Moment; Haiku: A Poet’s Guide; Met on the Road: A Transcontinental Journal; A Haiku Path; Fan; Brocade of Leaves; Dreams Wander; Loose Change; Walking the Same Path; Crinkled Sunshine; Light and Shadow; From a Kind Neighbor; Voices and Echoes; A Solitary Leaf; Bits of Itself; When Butterflies Come; One Breath; Sixty Sunflowers; Favorite Haiku; World Haiku Review; Baseball Haiku; Lanterns: A Firefly Anthology; Seed Packets; Dandelion Clocks; Among the Lilies; The Merton Seasonal; Timepieces; Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka of 2008; A Travel-Worn Satchel; The Pebbled Shore; and Catzilla!.
Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers: Dogwood Review; Americas Review; Pyramid Review of Arts and Literature; UU World; Colere; Passager; HalfTones; Connecticut River Review; Sensations Magazine; Voiceprint; New Haven ARTS; Tricycle; Shambala Sun; Insight; Inquiring Mind; Frogpond; Modern Haiku; Wind Chimes; Brussels Sprout; The Nor’Easter; Tundra; Burning Bush Books; Haiga Online; Seasons Greetings; Ribbons; Simply Haiku; Mariposa; White Lotus; ForeWord; The Yale Anglers’ Journal; Poetry Nippon (Japan); New Cicada (Canada); Albatros (Romania); Hermitage (Romania); Agora (Romania); Shell (Yugoslavia); Sparrow (Croatia); Ko (Japan); Inkstone (Canada); Lishanu (Ireland); Shamrock Haiku Journal (Ireland); Haiku Calendar (England); World Haiku Review (Japan); Mainichi Times (Japan); and The Daily Yomiuri (Japan).

Books Published:

Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace. A book of Forges-Ryan's haiku poems with commentary by her husband, Edward Ryan. Published in Tokyo and London by Kodansha International, hardcover, 2002; Russian hardcover edition published in 2003 by Sophia Press, Kiev, Ukraine; paperback edition published in 2006 by Apocryphile Press, Berkeley, CA; What Light There Is Red Moon Press (2016); Side by Side - Poems Prints Cyberwit.net, paperback (2019).

Long ago
	I would have picked
		these violets

Summer afternoon
         a Bach flute sonata
                   cools the air

Spring rain
	a sprinkle of arpeggios
		from the street musician

Lilies of the field
          what this world calls
                    just doing nothing

Slowly falling snow
         little by little I learn
                     to forget you

A soldier’s headstone
	between one date and another
		so short a line

Credits:

"Long ago" - Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac [by William J. Higginson] (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1996); "Spring rain" - Take a Deep Breath: The Haiku Way to Inner Peace (Apocryphile Press, Berkeley, CA, 2006); “Slowly falling snow” – White Lotus Haiku Competition, 2007; “Summer afternoon” – Chrysanthemum No. 32, April 2024; “Lilies of the field” – Side by Side, Poems Prints (Cyberwit, 2019); "A soldier’s headstone" - First Prize, Ukiah Festival (2008).