The Touchstone Distinguished Books Award — Long List 2025

The Haiku Foundation is pleased to announce The Touchstone Distinguished Books Award Long List for 2025. The Books Awards are bestowed annually on published collections of poems, or works of scholarship that represent noteworthy contributions to English-language haiku. The nominees’ works represent a rich variety of English-language books from many nations and haiku traditions.

Throughout 2025, the five panel members read the 81 nominated books, and each panelist selected their ten most exceptional books. These selections became the Long List.

In the next stage, the panel discusses and reviews the Long List to determine and rank their top 8 books. The top-rated collections become the Short List. Upon further discussion and voting, in the final stage, the panel chooses the books receiving Awards and Honorable Mentions.

The Short List will be announced on April 10th, and the final results for The Touchstone Awards for Distinguished Books will be announced on April 17, as part of the Haiku Foundation’s celebration of International Haiku Poetry Day.

I am highly appreciative of our distinguished panel  —Joyce Clement, Judson Evans, Edward Cody Hutchinson, Christopher Patchel, and Sharon Pretti.  They put endless hours into reading the collections and carefully considering them.

Bruce H. Feingold

Touchstone Awards Chair and Distinguished Books Award Coordinator 

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

• Beary, Roberta. crazy bitches. (Winston-Salem, NC: Mac Q Press, 2025).
• Bennett, Brad. a rush of doves. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press,  2025).
• Brickley, Chuck, downhill home. (Ormskirk, UK: Shapshot Press, 2025).
• Carson, Liam, Belfast Twilight. (Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland,  salmonpoetry, 2025).
• Chula, Margaret, Clothes to Go Out In. (Portland, OR, Poetry Box, 2025).
• Cruz, Daniel Shank, a good possible year for an apocalypse. (Winchester, VA, Red Moon Press, 2025).
• Dozier, Katie & Green, Timothy, Did You See the Moon Honey. (MIddletown, DE: Fungible Press, 2025).
• French, Terri L. kaleidoscope dream. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press,  2025).
• Gaa, Ben. A Wild Blue Sky. (USA: Octopus  Hearts Press, 2025).
• Gurga, Lee, the whisper I wished for. (Champaign, Ill: Modern Haiku Press, 2025).
• Gurga, Lee & Metz, Scott. Haiku 21. 2(Champaign, Ill: Modern Haiku Press, 2025).
• Hall, Carolyn, Pulling the Yarn. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2025).
• Hooven, Frank, magic carpet. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2025).
• Hotham, Gary. Our Backs to the Wind. (Taylorville: Ill: Brooks Books, 2025).
• Kacian, Jim and Schwerin, Julie, Editors. New Resonance 14. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press,  2025).
• Kamakura, Sayumi. Applause for a Cloud. (Boston, MA: Black Ocean, 2025).
• Lehmann, Kat. no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song. (Studio City, CA: Rattle 2025).
• Morrissey, Laurie D. a dream of owls. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2025).
• Parashar, Vandana. A Call’s Loon. (Taylorville, Ill: Brooks Books, 2025).
• Robbie, Karen. home. (Uxbridge, UK: Alba Publishing, 2025).\
• Sabol, Barbara. Mapping the Borderlands. (Russel, Ky:  Sheila N GIg Editions, 2025).
• Smith, Crystal Simone. Runagate. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2025).
• Thompson, John & Owen. Renee, Moonblind. (Sebastopol, CA: Pig Blossom Press, 2025).
• Tann, Hilary, edited by Gary Hotham and John Stevenson. timbre. (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press,  2025).
• Tropper, Sara, white heat.  (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press,  Winchester, VA, 2025).

Please note one  of the panel members was featured in New Resonance, Edited by Jim Kacian and Julie Schwerin, and recused himself throughout the voting process.

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