Self-portrait
Connie R Meester (born Connie Rae Fouch, September 2, 1946, Perry, Iowa, U.S.A.), educator in early and adult education, special ed, and lay ministry. Since 1990 her haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, and rengay have appeared in juried journals and anthologies in the U.S.A. and abroad. Her work has earned recognition in local, national, and international competitions, including the HSA Henderson and Brady awards, the Canadian Writer’s Journal International Poetry Contest, and several Hawai‘i Education Association contests. Tsugigami, a collection of linked verse she coauthored (2018) with Valorie Woerdehoff, was shortlisted for The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Book Award in 2019 and received First Place in the inaugural Marianne Bluger Book and Chapbook Awards from Haiku Canada in 2020. She lived in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1975 to 2005, where she studied with Bill Pauly and begin working with Valorie Woerdehoff. Presently she resides in Des Moines, Iowa.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.