Touchstone Awards

The Haiku Foundation Announces Its Touchstone Distinguished Books Award Short List for 2020

The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce The Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards Shortlist for books of haiku and related forms published in 2020. The nominees’ work represents a rich variety of English-speaking books from many nations and haiku traditions. Our five panel members read each of the seventy-two books in the first round, and after careful deliberation chose seventeen books for the Shortlist. In the second round the panel members will review the Shortlist and determine  which books will receive the highest level of recognition of Awarded and Honorable Mention.
 
I think I speak for the panel in noting how difficult it was to limit our selection to seventeen books this year. As one of the panel members wrote, “The completion is stiff!” We recognize the many worthy books beyond the Shortlist which were published in 2020.
 
On April 17, the Foundation will announce its final awards for 2020.

I wish to thank the Distinguished Books Award Panels: Beverly Acuff Momoi, Patricia Machmiller, Scott Mason, Victor Ortiz and Michael Rehling.

We extend our congratulations to the following authors and publishers (books are arranged in alphabetical order by author):

Antolin, Susan. The Years That Went Missing (Durham NC: Backbone Press, 2020).

Ashraf, Hifsa. Her Fading Henna Tattoo (Wilmington DE: Human/Kind Press, 2020).

Bridges Alan S. in the curves (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

Codrescu, Ion. The Wanderer Brush (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

Fabre, Gilles. Along the Way: A Search for the Spirit of the World (Uxbridge UK: Alba Publishing, 2020).

French, Terri L. Fully Human (Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020).

Gurga, Lee. Without Syntax (White Heath IL: Modern Haiku Press, 2020).

Gurga, Lee and Metz, Scott. Haiku 2020 (White Heath IL: Modern Haiku Press, 2020).

Hall, Carolyn. Cricket Dusk (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

Kadric, Elmedin. light packing (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

Kelly, David Small Hadron Divider (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

m., paul. witness tree (Omskirk UK: Snapshot Press, 2020).

Nyitrai, Réka. While Dreaming Your Dreams (Valencia Spain: Mono Ya Mono Books, 2020).

Owen, Renée. This One Life (Durham NC: Backbone Press, 2020).

Polette, Keith. pilgrimage (Winchester VA: Red Moon Press, 2020).

Purington, Carol. Farm Song (Colrain MA: Winfred Press, 2020).

Strange, Debbie. Prairie Interlude (Omskirk UK: Snapshot Press, 2020).

Bruce H. Feingold
Chairman, Touchstone Awards

This Post Has 9 Comments

  2. I’m so happy to see “Her Fading Henna Tattoo” on the list! Hifsa and I worked so hard on getting this together (I edited). This is a bilingual collection in English and Urdu. It delves deep into important women’s topics and half the proceeds go to charity!

    Thanks so much to the panel for their consideration and congrats to the others who made the list! 🙂

    https://www.humankindjournal.org/her-fading-henna-tattoo

    https://www.amazon.com/Her-Fading-Henna-Tattoo-Collection/dp/1951675061/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=her+fading+henna+tattoo&qid=1616940329&sr=8-2

  3. Thank you to the panel of judges for recognizing Fully Human. This book was an emotional one for me and one I’m proud of. My sincere congratulations to all of the other wonderful poets whose books made the list.

  4. So very pleased to see “Cricket Dusk” on this list alongside books by some of my favorite poets! Thank you so much to the THF panel.

  5. Thanks kindly to The Haiku Foundation’s esteemed panelists for including “Prairie Interludes” on this list – a huge honour! I’m beyond grateful to John Barlow of Snapshot Press for helping to bring this wee book into the world. Good luck to all the gifted finalists!

    shine on,
    Debbie

  6. Congratulations to all the poets! Should include links to all the books so people can purchase them.

  7. Looking forward to reading through some of these! Hearty congratulations to all on the list!

  8. What a wonderful list! Congratulations all, and best of luck for the final stage.

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