Annandale Campus Library Haiku Contest Winners 2021

Annandale Campus Library is pleased to congratulate the winners of this year’s annual Book Spine Haiku Contest.

For Students, First Place goes to Karen Whitlock with her haiku:
THE ARTIST’S GARDEN
PANDORA’S PICNIC BASKET
REBELS FOR THE SOIL.

Second Place goes to Valery D Osorio, whose haiku reads:
BLUE OCEAN CLASSICS
A CITY IN BLUE AND GREEN
BLUE ON BLUE.

The winner of this year’s Faculty/Staff contest is Elizabeth Dellavedova with:
THE START UP OF YOU
GIRL, STOP APOLOGIZING
ANCIENT FORGIVENESS.

Second Place goes to Stacy Arth with:
THE GATHERING STORM
CLOUDS, SOME SUN AND A SHOWER
SECRETS OF WILDFLOWERS.

The main purpose for establishing the contest four years ago was to bring students into the Annandale Campus Library to experience its collections in, what was hoped to be, a fun and interesting way. Students were told to create a haiku poem by browsing the shelves to pick three books and/or videos. When stacked, the titles would create their poem. We also wanted to introduce students to this ancient form of poetry and to National Poetry Month in April. Of course, with pandemic restrictions continuing this year, the contest was again held virtually with contestants using keyword searches in the libraries’ catalog of holdings to select their titles.

We are very grateful to this year’s judges: Annandale English professor, and Fairfax County’s first Poet Laureate, Nicole Tong; Language Arts and Social Sciences Dean Jen Daniels and NOVA President Dr. Anne Kress for their support and enthusiasm while judging the entries. Each judge decided their picks separately then came together to form consensus. The contest coordinator is the only one with access to contestants’ names. This year’s judges described the experience as “fresh and surprising,” “lovely,” “hard to choose,” and is “always a delight.”

Questions and comments can be directed to Kevin Simons at ksimons@nvcc.edu.

Submitted by:
Kevin Simons, AN Library, KSimons@nvcc.edu