“The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems are bestowed annually [by The Haiku Foundation] on poems that represent noteworthy additions to English-language haiku and senryu in the estimation of a distinguished panel. The Awards are open to any English-language haiku or senryu first published in the current calendar year.”*

As many readers of MacQueen’s Quinterly may know, I typically publish only a few individual haiku and senryu each year. Many of which have been ekphrastic. My preferred focus has been a related form, the haibun, and this year I published 69 of those (with 77 in 2023, and 70 in 2022). To my surprise, I also published 22 individual haiku and senryu this year—a trend that I would like to continue. Hence my decisions to solicit more of these tiny poems for MacQ, and to begin nominating this form for the Touchstone Awards.

With much appreciation to the following trio of poets for publishing with MacQ, I’m delighted to announce my first-ever nominations for the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems.

1. Sharon Ferrante: two of her senryu from Issue 22:

Venice—
how eager his tongue
to taste my gelato

toes in the sand
that one crab
I didn’t see

2. Goran Gatalica: two of his poems from Issue 25:

graduation day—
rising in the wind
the seed tufts

spelling her name ...
I catch the sunlight
through the clouds

3A. Stella Pierides: one of her senryu from Issue 22:

when the going gets tough
the feel of your hand
in mine

3B. Stella Pierides: one of her haiku from Issue 22:

new snow ...
the sound only silence
makes

*“The Haiku Foundation, as part of its mission to expand possibilities for English-language haiku, created the Touchstone Awards Series in 2010 for individual haiku and senryu (The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems) and books (The Touchstone Distinguished Books Award). In 2022, the Touchstone Award for Individual Haibun was added to recognize individual haibun.

“All awards seek to reward excellence and innovation each calendar year. Results are determined through a year-long nomination and selection process and are released the following year on April 17, International Haiku Poetry Day. Award recipients are selected by independent panels comprised of authorities in the field.”

For details about the selection process and the panelists, see:
Touchstone Award for Individual Poems