Full-length collection by Roberta Beary, Touchstone Award-winning poet and long-time haibun editor at Modern Haiku, which includes 80 haibun selected from poems written over a 20-year period, 2004 through 2024. Four paintings by contemporary American artist Kevin Beary also appear in this collection, including Widow with Shawl on the cover. With Lew Watts and Rich Youmans, Roberta Beary is co-author of Haibun: A Writer's Guide(2023).

Also available to purchase at
https://bookshop.org

I've come to expect nothing less than perfection from Roberta Beary, and Crazy Bitches: selected haibun does not disappoint. Beary is a master of the form and her haibun are deceptively simple; it takes the highest level of craft to make them seem so. Beary tackles the hard issues, as in "On a Day Like Any Other," where the small, pink-haired boy is ambushed by bullies, captured on video. "A footprint marks his face. His white shirt is stained with blood. But the Blessed Heart insignia on his backpack is untouched." Beary's sense of irony is unmatched. I love this book.

--Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Triggered, Brazen, Junkie Wife, and Erotic 

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. That balance of interweaving a resonant narrative while allowing readers to have the satisfaction of making the connections themselves is perhaps the most difficult tightrope walk of all--when it comes to crafting excellent poetry. Beary manages an impressive feat--by nestling the audience right alongside the various voices of the poems as the haiku allow for the space for the readers to make their own connections.

--Katie Dozier, creator of The Poetry Space_, author of Watering Can, co-author of Hot Pink Moon: A Crown of Haibun, and associate editor for Rattle 

This collection of eighty haibun is a triumph. Those new to haibun are in for a treat, and those experienced with Roberta Beary's work will gasp and smile with each turned page. Yes, Beary, longtime haibun editor at Modern Haiku, writes brilliant haibun. They have famously written about "The Holy Trinity of Haibun" a title that draws the reader in, prose that is short and engaging, and (one or more) haiku that reflect or expand the prose. Her haibun are exemplars of this, and they sizzle. And there's more. Innovative of form, approach, even narrative type, Beary's haibun effortlessly shift from lyrical to the tightest, bitingly sparse flash. And all this through twenty years of acerbic, ironic, candid, and forceful writing with a voice that's consistent and unique.

--Lew Watts, haibun co-editor for Frogpond, and author of Eira, a memoir in haibun form and recipient in 2023 of a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award

‘Masterfully weaving haiku moments into a compelling narrative, Carousel captures the arcs of family relationships through flashes of insight that flare in our memories. Like Beary’s The Unworn Necklace, it is a book to read again and again.’
—Timothy Green
Editor, Rattle

‘A fearless poet who writes on familial cycles that, like samsara or the title’s carousel, inform their present. Beary’s poems seek to exorcise, to bring to light the hidden, the shameful, until they have no power over us.’
—Paul Miller
Editor, Modern Haiku

‘Addressing themes ranging from the heart-breaking to the humorous, Carousel is a stellar collection of breathtakingly exquisite and hauntingly evocative poems. Roberta Beary ranks among the finest practitioners of haiku in English today.’
—Clare MacQueen
Editor, MacQueen’s Quinterly

If fish in love is indicative of the current wealth of talent within The Haiku Society of America, then one can reasonably conclude that the state of this union is prosperous indeed. Roberta Beary and Ellen Compton did an excellent job of editing. Those HSA members who contributed to this celebration of haiku and senryu should feel equally proud. fish in love is an anthology to return to time and again. — Judges’ Comment

Awards:

Haiku Society of America Book Award

Finalist

The Special Award for Anthology was awarded to dandelion clocks edited by Roberta Beary [DC] and Ellen Compton [DC]. Last year, 2008, marked the 40th anniversary of the Haiku Society of America. Co-editors Beary and Compton, both seasoned writers and winning editors, compiled an attractive and engaging volume from the best available haiku and senryu sent from HSA members. Novice writers are featured alongside seasoned veterans for a refreshing equity. — Judges' Comment, Haiku Society of America Book Award 2009

"This collection of haiku indicates the diversity that is prevalent in the twenty-first century. During the fortieth year of the Haiku Society of America, editors Roberta Beary and Ellen Compton perhaps had gender and culture in mind while selecting the best available haiku from members of the Haiku Society of America. What about identity and its meaning in this rich anthology? How do the poets engage political, social, and cultural dimensions in a technological world? What subjects are important to the poets in this book in the first decade of the century? How do these poets transform haiku? The answers are in the poems, though with stylistic differences. . . “ from the introduction by Lenard D. Moore

Awards:

Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award
Special Award for Anthology

In the preface to this small anthology, Richard Krawiec explains, “At a meeting of the North Carolina Haiku Society, the subject of numbers came up. Can someone write and publish too many haiku? . . . I asked Lenard D. Moore . . . how many of his published haiku he thought would survive beyond his death. He considered it for a while then answered, ‘Seven.’” Hence the title and the premise of this book. Kraweic went on to contact editors asking them to send a list of the best haiku poets. He culled a list of 100 suggested writers to 14 and then asked for their ten best haiku, and then the editors, Beary & Moore (whose own work is included) chose seven for each poet... The haiku resonate with familiarity and the universal appeal of the experience and/or the image. — Judges' Comment

Awards:
Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award
Finalist