Survey says . . . The Touchstone Awards
Every September the Board of Directors and Associates of The Haiku Foundation are sent a survey. Their responses help to guide our growth and direction. We’d like to broaden our input, and so we’ll be asking you to respond to a series of questions, one per week, over the next half-year. Your replies will be weighed in our assessment of our performance.
Today’s question: Touchstone Awards
The Touchstone Awards, for books and for individual poems, is in its fourth year. Mark Harris is chair of the awards committee, and recruiting judges is part of his duties. You can find the archives for this program under Touchstone Awards on the website.
Please assess how well The Haiku Foundation is delivering on this topic. Indicate your assessment of our performance to date by choosing one of the options:
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Abandon
Please feel free to add additional comments. Thank you in advance for your consideration, and for helping us make The Haiku Foundation a better resource.
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Even for readers who keep up with haiku book reviews during the year the TS Book Awards contribute a worthwhile service and celebration.
Excellent.
Merrill, I work closely with the Touchstone panels. There’s always the small chance that the relationship could sway opinions in my favor. Likewise, a sitting Distinguished Book Awards panelist can’t have a book in the running. This is sometimes unfortunate, and yet we strive to maintain high ethical standards.
As for your kind words about my book, there is so much I could say . . . you are a generous soul, thank you. –Mark
I’m afraid I would fail this survey completely. I have found books that absolutely move me to tears and exhualtation… and yet no one seems to even know they exist. This last year I discovered Mark Harris’ amazing book “burl”… I can’t go into all the personal history of why this book moved me so much… let’s just say that to have someone in your life that you love as life itself, to understand that they will never know life as we know it, and yet to enter that life, and actually find the words that hold that mystery of the human condition…. In any event for half a century I too lived that mystery, never finding the words… and here I pick up this tiny book…by a remarkable poet… who gives me the words I’ve longed to hear for so long….
And then to find out I can’t nominate this marvelous book because Mark happens to be chair of the awards committee….
Well, I hereby nominate that book for the best haiku book I’ve ever read. So there! Many thanks, Mark.