We Have a Winner. Congratulations!
The winning manuscript chosen by our Final Judge:
Grasping the Fading Light, by Julie Bloss Kelsey
This manuscript has a global feel in spite of it being a personal experience. The poems are strong and forceful and at the same time gentle and honest. The interleaving of haiku and tanka effectively help in the arc of its narrative.
Filled with a poignancy, the mood is one of resilience and bouncing back. One very important point to be noted is the healing that takes place as the pages unfold. In these times of trials and turmoil caused by Covid and war – the art of swinging back to sanity and normal life is deftly handled here. Definitely a winner!
Kala Ramesh, Final Judge
Honorable Mentions
Two manuscripts received notable mention as runners-up:
Honorable Mention: Life on Saturn, by Helen Buckingham
Honorable Mention: Pond Ripples, by Anna Eklund-Cheong
Thank you to all who submitted this year!
We are thankful for the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with all of your wonderful work.
Judge’s Closing Remarks
I thank Sable Books for giving me this unique opportunity to judge the manuscripts of the SABLE BOOKS 2021 Haiku Book Contest for Women.
Judging a contest is never easy and most often I find submissions need to be read multiple times before we get a clear and decisive idea of how to move forward. I hope my selection finds consent in people’s minds and the chosen books are read by book lovers all over the world.
Poetry reading is subjective and I found myself wavering from one manuscript to the next – for each manuscript had its own pluses and minuses. After several initial readings and then rating my choices tentatively, I read what my preliminary readers, Autumn N. Hall and Kathleen MacQueen, had to say in their recommendations.
I thank them from the bottom of my heart, for I realise how much time and energy would otherwise have gone into this reading. Their careful assessment greatly helped me in finalising my winner. They have my heartfelt gratitude.
Kala Ramesh, Final Judge
Final Judge
Kala Ramesh, the Founder and Director of TRIVENI Haikai India, is an editor, anthologist, and an external faculty member of Symbiosis International University Pune, where she has been teaching a 60-hour haikai course since 2012 — a first in India. Her book of tanka and tanka prose The Forest I Know was published by HarperCollins in July 2021. Kala has organised eight haikai conferences in India since 2006. To bring haiku into everyday spaces, she has initiated several projects, notably haikuWALL and haikuDHYANA. She created the ‘Rasika’ form, an eight-verse renku (collaborative linked verses) fashioned after Matsuo Basho’s non-thematic style.
Ms. Kala Ramesh’s awards include:
- WE Trailblazer Poet Award, from Women Empowered India (2020)
- Second Place: Porad Haiku Award (2020)
- Winner: Akita International Haiku Contest (2020, 2013.)
- Pushcart Prize nomination from Modern Haiku (51.3) for haibun (2020)
- Shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize for Beyond the Horizon Beyond (2019)
- Winner, Snapshot Press Tanka eBook Award: an unseen arc (2017)
- Winner – Best Anthology, Haiku Society of America Book Award: Naad Anunaad (2017)
- Honourable Mention: Akita International Haiku Contest (2015, 2014.)
- Honourable Mention for Best Book for Children, Haiku Society of America Book Award (2011)
- Winner: The Heron’s Nest Award (2006)