2025 WINNING POEMS (ANIMALS) AND BIOS

BY RICHARD MATTA

BY RICHARD MATTA

Richard Matta lives in California.

BY LINDA LINDGREN

BY LINDA LINDGREN

After 15 years in media and corporate communications at Digital Equipment Corporation and another 30 years as a free-lance business and tech copywriter for small and large companies of all kinds, Linda Lindgren is retired—and trying to find the discipline to work on her own writing projects. She says, "I have always loved Haiku, especially Basho, when he elicits something so familiar, despite the differences across time and geography." During Covid, she and several friends took to creating and sharing haikus from their solitary walks via email.

BY VANDANA PARASHAR

BY VANDANA PARASHAR

Vandana Parashar is a postgraduate in Microbiology, an educator, and a haiku poet. Her haiku, senryu, and tanka have been published in many esteemed national and international journals and has won many prizes and accolades. Her haiku was also shortlisted for the prestigious Touchstone Award 2020. She is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her debut e-chapbook, “I Am,” was published by Title IX Press (now Moth Orchid Press) in 2019 and her second chapbook, “Alone, I Am Not,” was published by Velvet Dusk Publishing in April 2022.