Congratulations 2023 Touchstone Winners!

The 2023 Touchstone Awards were announced on April 17, and I’m delighted that four poets were honored for haiku that appeared in Kingfisher!

Laurie Greer received an Individual Haiku Award for the following haiku, which was published in Kingfisher #7:

      cathedral vaulting
      the centuries
      of whale fall

            Laurie Greer

Lew Watts won a Touchstone Distinguished Book award for Eira, his stunning collection of haibun and haiku, published by Snapshot Press. https://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/books/eira.htm Four of the haiku in the book were first published in Kingfisher. It’s an absolutely brilliant book and I highly recommend it!

Two other Kingfisher poems made it as far as the shortlist, both from Kingfisher #8:

      father's war journal . . .
      an ocean
      without a shore

             Kathryn Liebowitz

      inexperienced moonlight in the bed of lilies

            Mary McCormack

For more information about the Touchstones, including judges' commentary, please visit: https://thehaikufoundation.org/category/features/touchstone/

Congratulations, Laurie, Lew, Kathryn, and Mary!