Ripples in the Sand

Welcome to Ripples in the Sand, a podcast series featuring poetry readings and interviews with Drifting Sands poets—hosted by Sangita Kalarickal.

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Sangita Kalarickal
Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Poet and writer, Sangita Kalarickal has been wordsmithing and honing her craft in the forms of poetry and fiction which have been published in several e-magazines, and anthologies. She utilizes her left brain at her day job in technology. Currently, Sangita spends much of her free time studying and honing her skills in her latest obsession, haiku. Living in the midwest, USA, she is blessed to be surrounded by natural beauty and stark seasonal differences that can feed her ku. Ever since she embarked on her journey as a hajin, in mid-2021, her haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun have been published in several magazines.

For February’s episode of Ripples in the Sand, award-winning poet and moderator at Inkstone Poetry Forum, Rebecca Drouilhet, joins host Sangita Kalarickal for a reading of Rebecca’s haiku, tanka, haibun, and tanka prose along with a bonus reading of her insightful essay on tanka. This is a sometimes poignant yet ever uplifting look into the world of the haiku-related arts as they pertain to real life. A rich dish of poetry to ease your day. Do enjoy the show.

Rebecca Drouilhet
Picayune, Mississippi, USA

Rebecca Drouilhet is a retired registered nurse living in the Deep South, an area within driving distance of New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf coast and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Her work has appeared in a wide range of cutting-edge haiku and tanka journals and e-zines, and has won numerous awards and contests over the years. While she mostly works in the Japanese-derived forms of haiku, tanka, haibun and tanka prose, she also writes short stories, and is currently working not only on a novel but also on a collection of high-quality tanka (Wings Crossing the Moon) which she hopes to publish as both a hard-cover book and on Amazon and Kindle as a paperback and Kindle e-book in a few months.

Her books Lighting a Path and Blue Dragonfly are available on Amazon as paperbacks and Kindle e-books. 

Amazon.com : Blue Dragonfly by Rebecca Drouilhet
Amazon.com : Lighting a Path by Robert Michael and Rebecca Drouilhet

For the January 2023 issue of Ripples in the Sand, Sangita sits with Richard Grahn, founder of Drifting Sands for a reading from his latest book, and a candid discussion about mental health, and the role of writing as it relates to healing. They also discuss the origins of Drifting Sands and the volunteers who make it all happen.

Richard Grahn
Evanston, Illinois, USA

Richard hails from Southern Wisconsin and has lived in virtually every corner of America. A well-travelled hitchhiker, in his younger days, he has been gathering stories for over sixty years now which fuel his love of poetry, art, photography, and music. In 2020, he founded Drifting Sands and later launched the Poets Hub (this site). His writing has appeared in a variety of online and print journals, and he is the author of the book, Longevity: Poems in the Key of Helen available from Red Moon Press.

For the December issue of Ripples in the Sand, Sangita sits with one of Drifting Sands’ repeat editors and award-winning poet, Keith Polette for a cozy winter chat. Join them as Keith reads from his books “Pilgrimage” and “Soundings,” and shares insights into his personal perspectives on writing in the haibun form.

Keith Polette
El Paso, Texas, USA

Keith Polette is a Professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso.  He has published hiabun, haiku, senryu, and tanshi in both print and online journals.  His first book of haibun, pilgrimage, received the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Award in 2020, and his book of haiku, the new world, was on the short list for the Haiku Foundation’s Touchstone Award in 2017.  He has been a guest editor for Drifting Sands Haibun Journal, a judge for the first San Francisco International Haibun Contest, and is currently a judge for the Touchstone Awards with the Haiku Foundation.  He has also published four children’s books and numerous articles and books on Language Arts pedagogy, literary criticism, and Jungian studies.  His latest book of haibun, Soundings, is published by Alba Publishing (2023).

Episode 03 with Keith and Sangita is here:

For November’s episode of Ripples in the Sand, Sangita and Sean O’Connor, editor of The Haibun Journal, a print-only haibun journal based in Ireland, sit for a reading of Sean’s works and a discussion of the haibun form.

Sean O’Connor
Tipperary, Ireland

Sean O’Connor is a poet, author and editor based in rural Tipperary, Ireland. He is the founder and editor of The Haibun Journal, a biannual print journal dedicated to the haibun form, and was editor of the Irish print journal Haiku Spirit 1998-2000. He was a member of the judging panel of the Japan-based Genjuan International Haibun Contest for two years (2020 and 2021). 

O’Connor’s work has been widely published and translated, and anthologised worldwide. He co-wrote Pilgrim Foxes with Ken Jones and Jim Norton, published by Pilgrim Press (2000). His first solo collection Let Silence Speak (Alba Publishing 2016) was shortlisted for the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award 2016. A year later his title Even the Mountains: Five years in a Japanese Village (Alba Publishing 2017) was well received by reviewers. He won the HSA Merit Book Award: Best Haibun Book 2021 for Fragmentation (Alba Publishing 2021) and his haiku ‘nights drawing in’ won second place in the HSA Haiku Award 2022. In 2021 and 2022 he was awarded Literature Bursaries by the Arts Council of Ireland. See: www.seanwriter.com

No transcript available.

The inaugural episode of Ripples in the Sand. Sangita and Andrew sit down across the World Wide Web—sharing haibun and chatting about poetry and poetic moments.

Andrew Riutta
Gaylord, Michigan, USA

Andrew Riutta was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is a father, chef, and zamboni operator. His essay, “The Myths of Manhood,” from the collection This I Believe: On Fatherhood (Jossey-Bass), was featured on Public Radio International’s Bob Edwards Show in 2012.

Here’s the link to Andrew’s book on the Red Moon Press website: Blessed: Modern Haibun on Almost Every Despair.

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Click here to view the transcript of this episode.