Books Received
Reviews of the following books will appear in forthcoming issues of contemporary haibun online.
A House Meant Only for Summer: Haibun & Tanka Prose
By Cherie Hunter Day
Published by Red Moon Press
Winchester, Virginia
2023, Paperback, 80 pages
ISBN: 978-1-958408-34-6
Available through Red Moon Press
From the publisher: “In Day’s haibun, the terrain of the natural world is vividly and precisely rendered, with details unerringly chosen to reveal the emotional terrain that lies beneath. Nothing is vague or superfluous. It cracks you open a little bit to read about ‘the touch, touch, touch of a bud scar’ or ‘the worn flight feather of a crow’ — you realize suddenly you haven’t been looking closely enough, at anything, and you want to live it all over again to discover what you missed the first time.”—Melissa Allen
Splashes
By Cor van den Huevel
Published by House of Haiku
Kernersville, North Carolina
2023, Paperback, 118 pages
Available through Amazon
From the publisher: Splashes presents unique and original haiku prose (haibun) poems by one of the early pioneers of English language haiku, Cor van den Heuvel. This collection includes works written from 1972 to 2013, published here in a book for the first time. The book also includes a selection of Cor’s haiga, combining art with haiku. “The expression ‘nothing is lost on him’ must have been coined for Cor van den Heuvel. Here we witness an inquisitive eye and enthralled mind at play—one that can take what we take for quotidian things (street curb stones or bar footrests, for instance) and celebrate them for the small marvels they truly are. Splashes is a tonic in these all-too-cynical times.” — Scott Mason
Airspace: A Haibun Novellarette in Many Persons
By Diana Webb
Published by Spinning Sequin Press
Leatherhead, Surrey, UK
2023, Paperback, 68 pages
£6 GBP
Available from the author
From the publisher: “In Airspace, a groundbreaking new haibun novellarette, Diana Webb cements her reputation as one of the genre’s great innovators…. The collection resonates with love—the love of ballet, remembered first love, love of nature, of history, of words. It is a story of love that transcends both temporal and physical limitations. And ultimately it’s Webb’s love of language itself that shines in this thought-provoking and masterful tour-de-force.”—Alan Peat