Books Received
The Last Oak Leaf
By Caroline Giles Banks
Published by Wellington-Giles Press
Minneapolis, Minnesota
2025, paperback & e-book, 84 pages
ISBN, paperback: 979-8-218-72196-1
ISBN, e-book: 979-8-218-72197-8
Price: $12 USD paperback, $4.99 USD e-book
Ordering information
From the Publisher: “Like the oak tree, The Last Oak Leaf: Haiku, Senryu and Haibun Poems stands for wisdom, perseverance, and endurance. The poems, written between 2023 and 2025—times of uncertainty and conflict—give voice to the marginalzied, forgotten, and oppressed. Part I memorializes Indigenous and African-American experiences; Part II concerns past, present, and potential global conflicts; Part III concerns threats to language, the very words and phrases used to freely and openly express many voices; Part IV concludes with subjective experiences of women and the importance of legacy.” Includes 27 haibun and two tanka prose.
Buttoned Together
By Diana Webb
Published by Spinning Sequin Press
Leatherhead, Surrey, UK
2025, Paperback, 68 pages
£8 GBP (inquire about postal charges)
Available from the author
A “novellarette” that contains 55 connected haibun told by an unidentified narrator—a teddy bear, it becomes clear—who is lost, found, forgotten, and ultimately frayed, only to be resurrected, as depicted in one of the last pieces, “Becoming Human”:
Guardian angel, paperweight, mascot, model , witness, advisor and muse. Hardly ever a toy. Not until now. He makes me shape-shift from soldier to dancer to Mummy, Daddy, Baby, Goldilocks, whatever he wants me to be . He resembles the wind as it juggles the foliage swept on a whim. Whim of the wind of a wee child’s wish.
bedtime story bear
a leaf in his wind ruffled fur
asleep on the sill
Dreaminations: Prose Poems
By Jianqing Zheng
Pubished by Madville Publishing
Lake Dallas, Texas
79 pages, paperback and e-book, January 2026
ISBN, paperback: 978-1-963695-49-6
ISBN, e-book: 978-1-963695-50-2
Price: $19.95 paperback, $9.99 e-book
Ordering Information
From the Publisher: “Zheng’s new book Dreaminations is an experience that will leave you breathless and inspired… Zheng’s book unravels with allusions to Li Po, Langston Hughes, Franz Kafka, Richard Wright, and others. He also incorporates pop culture such as The Golden Girls. There are also Gene Kelly, Taylor Swift, and others. Yes, there is Delta Blues, too… Whether haibun or prose poems, Zheng’s Dreaminations depicts what must be documented, what must be spotlighted, and what must become art.”—Lenard D. Moore. Includes 52 haibun and 14 tanka prose.