Deborah P. Kolodji

Deborah P Kolodji (née Deborah Pauline Anderson; August 11, 1959 – July 21, 2024) was an American haiku poet.

Biography

Early life Kolodji was born and raised in Southern California. She took an interest in poetry before she learned to read, enjoying the rhythms of nursery rhymes recited aloud.

Kolodji wrote poetry from an early age, including Star Trek-inspired verse as a teenager which appeared in fanzines in the 1970s. She credited a junior high school math and science teacher with a passion for poetry with encouraging her interest in formal verse in general,

Education and career In 1981, Kolodji obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Southern California. In addition to her career as a poet, she has worked in information technology. She edited or co-edited several anthologies of English-language haiku, including Eclipse Moon (2017, with William Scott Galasso). She also acted as editor of Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, which she co-founded.

Kolodji was also the editor or co-editor of multiple anthologies of speculative verse, including several volumes of the annual Dwarf Stars anthologies collecting nominees for year's best very short science fiction and fantasy poetry and an issue of online speculative poetry journal Eye to the Telescope, a publication which she founded alongside Samantha Henderson. She also served as moderator of the Southern California Haiku Study Group at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena Her final published book, Vital Signs, is a collection of haiku inspired by her experiences combatting cancer.

Published works

Poetry collections Vital Signs (Cuttlefish Books, 2024)

Distance (Shabda Press, 2023, co-authored with Mariko Kitakubo)

Tug of a Black Hole (Title IX Press, 2021)

Highway of Sleeping Towns (Shabda Press, 2016)

Red Planet Dust (2007)

Symphony of the Universe (Sam's Dot Publishing, 2006)

Unfinished Book (Shadows Ink Publications, 2006)

Seaside Moon (Saki Press, 2004)

Recognition Kolodji's haiku collection Highway of Sleeping Towns was the recipient of a 2016 Touchstone Distinguished Books Award and received an honorable mention in the Haiku Society of America's 2017 Merit Book Awards.

Kolodji's fantasy scifaiku "Basho After Cinderella (iii)" placed first in the 2013 Dwarf Stars Awards The following year, her poem "Perseverance," another collaboration with Billie Dee, placed third in the Haiku Society of America Rengay Awards.