This anthology is the first national haiku collection to be published since 1998 (the second New Zealand Haiku Anthology NZPS ed Cyril Childs). It includes 60 poets and over 200 haiku. Many of these haiku have been published in national and overseas journals and have won awards in international contests. the taste of nashi is beautifully designed by Briar Whitehead on high quality paper. It features kanji, the most artistic type of Japanese characters, which were written for this anthology by a Japanese calligraphist. The book is the result of an open invitation to NZ writers to submit haiku. Four experienced and widely published haiku writers - Ernest Berry, Cyril Childs, Catherine Mair and Barbara Strang - selected haiku from a wealth of submissions (a limit of ten per poet). the taste of nashi is dedicated to Jeanette Stace (d 2006), a founding member of Windrift, and also of the planning committee for this anthology.