Roberta Beary, celebrated for her long tenure as haibun editor at Modern Haiku and known worldwide in her role as Roving Ambassador for The Haiku Foundation, offers a compelling new collection in Crazy Bitches. Beary’s accolades are substantial, including being a finalist for the Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards (2025 & 2016) and a two-time recipient of the Haiku Society of America Book Award (2024 & 2014).

This new book presents eighty haibun spanning two decades, with work selected from across Beary’s career, from 2004 through 2024. Intriguingly, the collection unfolds in reverse chronological order—inviting readers to start with Beary’s most recent pieces before travelling back to their earliest published work. The book is arranged into three chapters: “Cheshire Moon” (2022–2024), “Send Lazarus” (2016–2021), and “To See in the Dark” (2004–2015), each reflecting subtle shifts in voice and subject.

Crazy Bitches resonates with readers familiar with Haibun: A Writer’s Guide (co-authored with Lew Watts and Rich Youmans), where the equal importance of title, prose, and haiku was highlighted. In this current collection, Beary’s haibun are luminous and thought-provoking, often marked by what is left unsaid, thereby inviting the reader into a personal, interpretive space. Each piece offers a fresh perspective—sometimes wry, sometimes haunting, always authentic.

Personal favourites among the collection include “1st Trimester,” “After Long Absence,” “Untethered,” “Barfly,” and “Genetics,” though the range of subjects and emotional registers ensures there is something for every reader. The book is further enriched by thoughtfully selected photographs and contemporary artwork by Kevin Beary, which add a visual layer to the text’s emotional landscape.

Whether you are just beginning your haibun journey or are already a devoted practitioner, Beary’s distinctive voice, sharp insight, and unique style make Crazy Bitches a thoroughly rewarding read.

—Review first published in the print journal of the British Haiku Society, Blithe Spirit (Issue 35.4, 1 November 2025), and appears here with author’s permission.

Iliyana Stoyanova

Born in Bulgaria, Iliyana Stoyanova is a British poet, editor, and translator who holds a PhD in Theology. Her first book, Островитянско хайку (Ostrovityansko Haiku), was published in Bulgaria in 2010. Her haikai have won several international awards and have been published in Bulgaria, the United Kingdom, and beyond, including in the journals Blithe Spirit, cattails, contemporary haibun online, hedgerow, Presence, Ribbons, Skylark, Time Haiku, and elsewhere; and the anthologies Naad Anunaad (Vishwakarma Publications, 2016), Wishbone Moon (Jacar Press, 2018), and The Haiku Way To Healing (2022, ed. Robert Epstein), among others.

She is editor of Blithe Spirit, the journal of the British Haiku Society (BHS). She was editor of the BHS members’ anthologies Ekphrasis (2017) and Temple (2021), and of Peonies (Божури), a bilingual collection of women’s haiku (2019). She has served as Living Legacies editor for the Living Haiku Anthology since 2014, and as Haikupedia editor since 2020. Iliyana enjoys photography, watercolour painting, travelling, and reading.