tyranny of the familiar by Peter Jastermsky & Tiffany Shaw-Diaz

“Vibrant partnerships are those that combine tension and harmony. In the union of art and poetry, disparate pieces come together to form a creation more wondrous than the separate parts. Masters of their crafts, Peter Jastermsky and Tiffany Shaw-Diaz’s haiku and art stand beautifully alone. Put them together, and the poet and artist are a literary and artistic force. Shaw-Diaz’s art explodes upon the page, while Jastermsky’s haiku challenges us to peel back the layers to reveal inner nuances and shades of meaning. There is a brutal honesty at the core (‘false starts/how we embrace/the struggle’), balanced with beauty and vitality: ‘opening my heart a geode spills its color.’ tyranny of the familiar is a book that invites return journeys, each time sparking new revelations and discoveries.”

— Marianne Paul, Author of Body Weight: A Collection of Haiku and Art



About the Authors:

Peter Jastermsky is an award-winning haikai poet. A Best of the Net and Dwarf Stars nominee, his writing has been widely published. Peter’s books include Steel Cut Moon (Cholla Needles Press, 2019), No Velcro Here (Yavanika Press, 2019), Failed States (Bones Library, 2020), and The Silence We Came For (Yavanika Press, 2020). He lives with his family in the high desert of Southern California.

 
Tiffany Shaw-Diaz is a Pushcart Prize and Dwarf Stars Award nominee who also works as a professional visual artist. Her poetry has been featured in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, NHK World Haiku Masters, The Mainichi, and dozens of other publications. She is the author of two chapbooks: says the rose (Yavanika Press, 2019) and filth (Proleteria, 2020).