Books Received
Crazy Bitches
By Roberta Beary
Published by MacQ
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
2025, paperback, 128 pages
ISBN: 979-8-3305-6606-8
$25 USD
Available from online booksellers, including Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and Amazon
A selection of 80 haibun from the longtime haibun editor of Modern Haiku and one of the genre’s most acclaimed voices. The haibun are grouped by date into three sections (2022–2024, 2016–2021, 2004–2015), each of which is preceded by artwork created by the author’s brother, Kevin Beary, who also provided the cover painting. The poems often focus on hard topics—abuse, addiction, abortion, homophobia, and family deaths and dysfunction, among others—and address them all with directness and honesty. “Beary gets to the root of many different traumas, which are made more accessible thanks to her mastery of the power of the haibun form. The subtlety of their haiku allows ample space for readers to thread the needle of the story themselves.”—Katie Dozier