The Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest Sponsor/Publisher Website

IN CELEBRATION OF HAIKU -
A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF VIRGIL HUTTON, A HAIKU POET...

February/March 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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SAKI PRESS ANNOUNCES

THE WINNERS OF THE THIRD BIENNIAL VIRGIL HUTTON
HAIKU MEMORIAL AWARD CHAPBOOK CONTEST FOR 2001-2002

Haiku poetry collections by Johnny Baranski of Portland, Oregon; D. Claire Gallagher of Sunnyvale, California; Elizabeth Hazen of Winooski, Vermont; and Robert Major of Poulsbo, Washington, snatched the four winning slots for publication in the Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest for 2001-2002.

In this time of world change and reconsideration of what is important, haiku poetry continues to sustain us while providing hope and beauty, even joy and a pinch of wisdom, with insights not only for this time but for all time...  Haiku offer continuity and a meaning to our existence on this earth and help to bring us into harmony and balance with nature and our fellow man.  The four winning chapbook collections for this year's contest illustrate the diverse mix of the traditional form and celebrate, each in its own way, those unique haiku moments as seen through special "eyes" and in circumstances that touch and involve us all in that moment as well.

The contest was sponsored by the Hutton Family and Saki Press, Normal, Illinois, as a tribute to the memory of the late haiku poet, Virgil Hutton. It is also a celebration of the haiku form. The third biennial haiku chapbook memorial award contest attracted entries from the U.S.A., Canada, England, Austria, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia.

The four winning poets' collections were published in March of 2002 by Saki Press, Normal, Illinois, with distribution scheduled for April 2002. The published chapbook collections will be contributed for placement in The American Haiku Archives, California State Library Special Collections, Sacramento, California, and the Tokyo Museum of Haiku Literature in Japan. Limited numbers of review copies will also be distributed by the publisher upon request. The four winning chapbook collections are:

CONVICTS SHOOT THE BREEZE
by Johnny Baranski  (Saki Press Chapbook ISBN: 1-893823-11-3), who is a haiku poet and working bookkeeper living in Portland, Oregon. In this collection the poet's "haiku moments" center on his glimpses of the human spirit and its oneness with nature from behind bars. Structured within such a confining environment there remains a universe of experience for the poet that enables him to provide a tone of strength and unity encompassing man and nature throughout his work.

          Prevailing wind!
    neither prison bars nor spider web
            yield to it

"In prison...the haiku poet is held captive...by images that reflect the true nature of liberation."      -- Johnny Baranski

New Hope International Review (British) of CONVICTS SHOOT THE BREEZE - click here...

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HOW FAST THE GROUND MOVES
by D. Claire Gallagher (Saki Press Chapbook ISBN:  1-893823-12-1), a haiku poet living in Sunnyvale, California, who is the editor-in-chief of Mariposa, the journal of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, as well as being named a new editor for Red Moon Anthology.  The haiku in this collection focus on those moments in nature, time, space, and perception...when a shift or transition, however small, occurs. The haiku reflect the poet's keen awareness and attention to cycles of nature and man's kinship to it.

budding maples--
how fast the ground moves
under his tricycle

"It is the transitions, not the distinct (seasonal) divisions, that I am interested in..."     -- D. Claire Gallagher

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BACK ROADS WITH A WHITE CANE
by Elizabeth Hazen (Saki Press Chapbook ISBN:  1-893823-13-X), a writer, artist, and poet from Winooski, Vermont, who works to make haiku available to persons who cannot read print and to introduce sighted readers to the context of those who are blind.  A richly drawn and inspired collection of haiku which connects the layers of perception the poet experienced while blind.  Crisp, vivid imagery from an unusual perspective contributes to additional understanding of nature, the earth, and one another.

fall rain
the patter
of pine needles

"When I became blind, the distinctions between my other four senses blurred, and my awareness of place and the present moment sharpened."        -- Elizabeth Hazen

New Hope International Review (British) of BACK ROADS WITH A WHITE CANE click here...

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COASTING THROUGH PUDDLES
by Robert Major (Saki Press Chapbook ISBN: 1-893823-14-8), who is a retired editor from the University of Washington's Office of Publications and a former Regional Coordinator for the Northwest Region of the Haiku Society of America.  His chapbook collection, subtitled "haiku of childhood," allows the reader a nostalgic return to a simpler time when life seemed easier and a lot more fun. The haiku embrace the strength and security of home, family, and community which provide a continuity in childhood...

Playing hide-and-seek
on a long summer's evening...
called home one by one

"In youth we learn; in age we understand."        -- Marie Eschenbach

New Hope International Review (British) of COASTING THROUGH PUDDLES click here...

For more information, please visit the Saki Press Website: http://www.geocities.com/sakipress/

ALSO FROM SAKI PRESS . . .

HAIKU HARVEST (Saki Press Chapbook ISBN: 1-893823-10-5), a new compilation of 50 haiku and senryu by the late haiku poet, Virgil Hutton, gathered from his private files and journal notes, the collection presents some of his personal favorites plus a few works in progress.

Tractor
harvesting the wheat field--
trail of golden dust

"The two basics that I strive for in haiku writing are simplicity and profundity... One's poems ideally should leave one with a sense of yet undiscovered meanings and nuances." --Virgil Hutton

New Hope International Review (British) of HAIKU HARVEST click here...

Links:

Winners of the Fourth Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest for 2004-2005

Winners of the Third Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest for 2001-2002

Winners of the Second Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest for 2000

Winners of the First Virgil Hutton Haiku Memorial Award Chapbook Contest for 1998-99

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