paintbrush upturned
just as the small child left it . . .
first crocus
Claire is the author of two tanka collections, twelve moons and The Small, Wild Places; and co-author of Talking in Tandem with her husband, Tony. In 2017, Claire joined the editorial panel for the Red Moon Anthology. She served on the editorial team for Take Five Best Contemporary Tanka (Volume 4, 2011), and in 2015 she edited the Tanka Society of America’s Members’ Anthology, Spent Blossoms. She served as tanka-prose editor for Haibun Today [from December 2011 thru September 2016], and as founding editor of Skylark Publishing and Skylark: the journal [from the inaugural issue in April 2013 thru the final issue, Summer 2019].
https://skylarkpublishing.weebly.com/
She won a Touchstone Award for her haibun ‘A Thousand Thens’ in 2023, and her haibun ‘In Her Name’ is shortlisted (pending Award announcement for 2024).
Claire is mum to five children (and a beautiful lurcher called Dill) and step-mum to two. She has recently become a grandmother. She continues to write poetry but in recent years has turned her hand to chapters. She celebrates the sacred in the everyday and the joy in small things, and works full-time as a Care Coordinator/Social Prescriber for the National Health Service in North Yorkshire, England.