2022 Pinesong Dedicatee: Lenard D. Moore

Our dedicatee for the 2022 Pinesong is Lenard D. Moore. He has been a tireless worker for poetry and an exemplary poet for decades, and it is an honor to celebrate him.

This past fall, a latest collection of tanka and haibun, Long Rain, was released by Wet Cement Press.  In the introduction to this volume, Guy Davenport writes,

“Lenard Moore is a Japanese poet who lives in North Carolina, or a North Carolina poet who lives in an imaginary medieval Japan. He has been a farmer, an American soldier in Germany, a schoolteacher; his ancestors came from Africa in chains. He seems, to the world’s eye, to be as representative a husband, father, and citizen as any sociologist might point to as a statistically ordinary well-behaved American. And the sociologist would be wrong, for Lenard Moore is a poet, and all good poets are extraordinary, and very good ones are unique.”

Moore’s haiku have won awards nationally and internationally, including The Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Award; Haiku Museum of Tokyo Awards in 1983, 1994, and 2003; First prize winner in traditional style haiku; Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo); and Japan Air Lines Haiku Contest, where his haiku was a finalist out of more than 40,000 entries.

Moore also contributed to the work of haiku writing and publishing and archiving by serving as Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in 2020-2021, as President of the Haiku Society of America in 2008 and 2009, and as the long-time executive chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society.

He’s the editor of One Window’s Light: A Collection of Haiku (Unicorn Press, 2017, and reprinted by Blair in 2020) and co-editor of 7 (Jacar Press, 2016).  His own collection of haiku, The Open Eye, was published in a 30-year anniversary edition from Mountain and Rivers Press in 2017.

But Moore’s work is hardly restricted to haiku.  His other book length works include Poems of Love & Understanding (Carlton Press, 1982), Forever Home (St. Andrews College Press, 1992), Desert Storm: A Brief History (Los Hombres Press, 1993), Geography of Jazz (reprinted by Blair in 2020), and A Temple Looming (WordTech, 2008).

In 2020, Moore edited All the Songs We Sing: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective (Carolina Wren) with North Carolina Poet Laureate Jackie Shelton Green.  His literary works have been published in more than sixteen countries and translated into more than twelve languages.  His poems, essays, short stories, and book reviews have appeared in more than 400 publications.  His poems have appeared in more than 100 anthologies.

As an organizer, Moore founded and is executive director of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective and co-founder of the Washington Street Writers Group.

Having graduated magna cum laude from Shaw University and with a Master of Arts from North Carolina A&T State University, Moore has taught at Mount Olive College, North Carolina State University, North Carolina A & T State University, and Enloe High School in Raleigh.

An innovative collaborator, Moore has worked with noted musicians, a symphony orchestra, dancers, and visual artists.

Moore has been recognized with awards from numerous organizations, including the North Carolina Award for Literature; Furious Flower Laureate Ring; Margaret Walker Creative Writing Award; Raleigh Medal of the Arts; Indies Arts Award; Tar Heel of the Week Award; Sam Ragan Award in The Fine Arts; Cave Canem Fellowships; and a Soul Mountain Retreat Fellowship.  He has served as Eastern North Carolina Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet.

On a personal note, as someone who first met Lenard Moore nearly forty years ago, I can say that few people I have met in writing have applied themselves as passionately and so often selflessly in creating both excellent poetry and special environments that assist others in writing, editing, and publishing poetry.  I agree with Guy Davenport: Lenard Moore is an original, as a poet and as a North Carolinian.  Moore was hungry for poetry and poetic companionship then as he is now.  For that and for his congeniality, we have all been living better lives.

This year marks the 90th year of NCPS, and we can think of no better poet to celebrate at this historic moment in time than Lenard Moore, who perfectly exemplifies the aspirations we have as poets and as good stewards of our poetic community.

The Nominating Committee

Paul Jones
Bill Griffin
Malaika King Albrecht

Previous Annual Awards Anthology Dedicatees from 1987 through 2021

1987 – Christine Sloan

1988 – Carolyn Kyles

1989 – Sallie Nixon

1990 – Leon Hinton

1991 – Sam McKay

1992 – Gladys Hughes

1993 – Margaret Baddour

1994 – Shelby Stephenson

1995 – Sam Ragan

1996 – Ron Bayes

1997 – Sally Buckner

1998 – Mary Belle Campbell

1999 – Betty Bolton

2000 – Ellen Johnston-Hale

2001 – Marie Gilbert

2002 – Ray Dotson

2003 – Ruby Shackleford

2004 – David Mannning

2005 – Lois Wistrand

2006 – Marsha Warren

2007 – Susan Meyers

2008 – Ann Deagon

2009 – Sharon Sharp

2010 – Libby Campbell

2011 – Bill Griffin

2012 – Carolyn & Guy York

2013 – Bill Blackley

2014 – Sara Claytor

2015 – Pat Riviere-Seel

2016 – Scott Owens

2017 – Kathryn Stipling Byers

2018 – Kevin Morgan Watson

2019 – Ruth Moose

2020 – M. Scott Douglass

2021 – David T. Manning

Notes:  Anthologies were not dedicated to individuals before 1987.  The anthology name was Award Winning Poems before 2003.
The anthology name was changed to Pinesong Awards in 2003.