Haiku has changed. eggplants & teardrops: a haiku collection takes haiku into the 2020s, radically updating classic haiku conventions from the days of poetry greats like Matsuo Bashō and touching on contemporary subjects never before seen in the form. With an engaging, comedic style, Barry traces a life of social media, manga, and urban slang, looking at what it means to be broke, search for love in all the wrong places, and exist in a state of constant revision. In their impressive plurality, these poems are an expression of the next generation’s most distressing, beautiful, and vulgar experiences, rendered through an ancient poetic tradition. Many of the poems in this collection have been featured across English-language haiku's most respected magazines , and now they've been artfully arranged for the first time and accompanied by thirty bold line art illustrations . * depending on the time of day aubergines or eggplants single star... these teardrops analog * "A wonderfully hilarious collection. Barry has mastered the modern comedic form." Jay Friedenberg, President, Haiku Society of America "Witty and playful ... abstract and cerebral ... at other moments, personal, raw, and poignant. eggplants & teardrops offers us a fresh take on the daily experiences and anxieties of a new generation." Jacqueline Pearce, Award-winning Haiku Poet and Editor "A wonderfully hilarious collection. Barry has mastered the modern comedic form." -- Jay Friedenberg, President, Haiku Society of America "Witty and playful ... abstract and cerebral ... at other moments, personal, raw, and poignant. eggplants & teardrops offers us a a fresh take on the daily experiences and anxieties of a new generation." -- Jacqueline Pearce, award-winning haiku poet and editor " eggplants & teardrops pushes the boundaries of what we consider English-language haiku and senryu. Using unconventional and contemporary language, Barry makes the genre more accessible to a new and younger audience, all the while establishing a unique voice that is all his own." -- Bryan Rickert, Co-editor of Failed Haiku "One doesn't have to look long and hard in this collection to find literary gems that delight with their sardonic wit. Aaron has shown that it's truly not the size that matters-these poems, though small, offer penetrating observations about the hot mess that is the human experience. For those who need to know that they are not alone in their insecurities and angst, this collection hits the spot." -- Antoinette Cheung, Winner of the 2021 Betty Drevniok Award "Infused with a blend of humour and the challenges of our times, eggplants & teardrops offers provocative and surprising juxtapositions that might have us thinking twice about the influence of technology on humanity as we know it." -- Jacob D. Salzer, Author of Unplugged- Haiku & Tanka "Our post-COVID, post-postmodern society is brimming with more contrasts and contradictions than ever, and Barry's haiku sublimely reveal and explore these conflicts using cleverness, humour, and, when needed, sincerity." -- Edward Cody Huddleston, Author of Wildflowers in a Vase "Luminously intense, sympathetically comedic. And the illustrations serve to enhance these qualities every step of the way." -- Hemapriya Chellappan, Co-editor of the QuillS "Here is a twenty-something voice that brings to mind Canadian haiku forerunners such as LeRoy Gorman and Dorothy Howard, who experimented with new formats and content. Several decades later, with his Gen-Y eye cast on a very different world, Aaron Barry has delivered a waggish, punchy, and poignant collection of imaginatively conceived poems." -- Vicki McCullough, Editor of Sisyphus: Haiku Work of Anna Vakar "Wonderfully subversive and innovative. It's hard to put this collection down." -- Nicholas Klacsanzky, founder of Haiku Commentary Aaron Barry is said to look like a poor man's Penn Badgley, and he's perfectly okay with that. His haiku and senryu have appeared in many of English-language haiku's most prestigious magazines and have placed in several international competitions, including the 2019 VCBF Haiku Invitational and The Haiku Foundation's 2021 Touchstone Award for Best Individual Poems. Currently, he barely affords rent in Burnaby, BC, Canada.Find him on IG @aaronmbarry or @zennialhaiku Eunbyul Kwak is a professional illustrator based in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Otis College of Art and Design in 2010, and has worked as an illustrator and graphic designer since. Kwak's style focuses on fantasy and surreal illustrations, using her freehand digital art skills, and she likes to work in a wide range of genres, including manga/manhwa art for comics, children's illustrations, poetry books, logos, t-shirts, portraits, and more. She is the illustrator for Anime Prompts Gone Wild (PGW, 2022). John Stevenson was born in Ithaca, New York, and currently lives in the village of Nassau, New York. He is