A new section! A contest!

The following post is the first in a new series devoted to reviewing books/collections of, about, or related to, haiku. To kick things off, the first installment is by Billie Wilson, about a collection that she found herself driven to write about.

And so this new section becomes open to ALL troutswirl readers.

If you have a short review you’ve written on a recent haiku publication, or a collection you’d like to be considered for review on troutswirl, send it along. You can send reviews—positive, negative or both—to be considered to me at: ztemttocs AT gmail.com (replace AT with its symbol).

Mail copies of books or collections to be considered to:

The Haiku Foundation
P.0. Box 2461
Winchester, VA
22604-1661
USA

Donations will gratefully become part of The Haiku Foundation’s hard library.

Last but not least: this new review section needs a name. Send your ideas to me at the same email address as above: ztemttocs AT gmail.com (replace that AT!). A prize will be given but it has not yet been determined. Stay tuned. The due date for name submissions is September 12, 2009. Send in as many as you like.

Here is the first review, by Billie Wilson. . . . . .

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
A Travel-Worn Satchel: The Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology 2009 (Eds. Joseph Kirschner, Lidia Rozmus, and Charles Trumbull): Deep North Press, Evanston, Illinois, for the Haiku Society of America, 2009, 124 pp., perfect softbound, 6-1/4×6-1/4. ISBN 978-0-930172-06-8 (first edition of 350 copies).
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
I stayed up way past my bedtime on the day A Travel-Worn Satchel arrived in my mail. Once opened, I could not put it down. The idea for this anthology was inspired; the result is stunning. From its beautifully-designed cover, interesting square format, and high quality stock to the fascinating layout of the haiku, this book is a treasure. I’m an enthusiastic fan of these anthologies which have been published annually since 1993 by the Haiku Society of America. Through obsessive internet searches and the generosity of fellow poets, I’ve been able to find all of them. Each is a time capsule for what was happening in the haiku community during the year—a bit of English-language haiku history.
 
A Travel-Worn Satchel is the first such anthology to have a theme: geographical haiku. Each poet was asked to send haiku that named or referred to a location that could be pinpointed on a map. The editors then selected at least one haiku from each poet, choosing a total of 293 haiku. Then the poems were masterfully arranged so that turning a page is like moving a little further around the globe, since each place is actually pinpointed on a map. I cannot do justice in describing the nearly interactive experience this creates. When I read a poem about a place I’ve visited, that place was immediately vivid again. When about a place I’ve dreamed of visiting, the poet helped me see it clearly.
 
The title is an homage to Matsuo Bashō’s 1688 travelogue, Oi no Kobumi (Journal of a Travel-Worn Satchel). Another inspired decision that has the effect of walking along with Bashô on the road that led us where we find ourselves today in our own haiku journey.
 
These three editors have just raised the bar for all anthologies to come.