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I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but there are not a lot of haiku poets in the world. I mean, take a walk around your neighborhood, and unless you live in a really strange neighborhood, I can probably guarantee that you won’t run into a single other writer of short-form Japanese poetry. To do that you usually have to make a special effort. But it’s so worth it — not to be all braggy and everything, but haiku poets are really fun to be around.
But where to go? Well, how about...
Syracuse, New York, March 26: South Side Poetry Workshop
Herm Card, retired English teacher from the Marcellus schools and a board member of the Poster Project (see the Stuff to Write section below), will lead a haiku workshop, 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, March 26, at the South Side Communications Center, 2331 S. Salina St., (at McKinley Ave.) Syracuse. The workshop is free and open to all ages, no reservations required.
Surrey, England, April 11-15: Purely Haiku Residential Writers’ Course and Retreat
This course, led by Alan Summers (a founding editor of haijinx, and a founder of With Words, a UK-based provider of quality literature, education and literacy projects, often based around the Japanese genres) and Karen Hoy, a published haiku writer, is for haiku first-timers as well as seasoned haiku writers. There are four workshops a day and opportunities for one-on-one sessions, and the course ends with a fun renga writing session. All food (reported to be excellent and plentiful) and accommodation are provided.
For more information: http://area17.blogspot.com/2011/02/purely-haiku-unique-uk-based.html
Hamilton, NZ, April 29-30: “Creating Original Poetry through Japanese Forms”
At the University of Waikato/Waikato Pathways College, award-winning haiku poet Owen Bullock will teach this continuing education course that will introduce participants to [haiku] techniques. Participants will also explore other poetic forms like tanka and haibun.
For more information and to register: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/pathways/community/hamilton/cce_japaneseforms.shtml
Ukiah, California, May 1: The Ninth Annual ukiaHaiku Festival 2011
Ukiah is a town in northern California whose name spelled backwards (I’m sure you noticed right away) is “haiku.” Out of this fortuitous fact was born the ukiaHaiku festival, an afternoon devoted to music and haiku. A competition is associated with the festival (the deadline has unfortunately passed by now, but there’s always next year), and the winners read aloud their poems. There is also an exhibit of selected submissions to the festival, and a reception with refreshments following the presentation.
For more details: http://www.ukiahaiku.org
(And if you can’t make it to Ukiah, the next-best thing would be to watch a video of Jane Reichhold giving a haiku workshop at the festival, which you can do by surfing over to http://mendocinoaccess.org/jwplayer/index.html)
Evanston, Illinois (Chicago suburbs), May 7: Haikufest
Beginning and advanced poets will learn to appreciate, write, and enhance their haiku skills, from 1 to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, May 7 at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston, IL. The event, with lecture, discussion, and exhibition of poetry and art, is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Midwest Region of the Haiku Society of America and the Evanston Public library. Pre-registration is required.
There will be presentations and workshops on the topics of “Haiku: A Path Leading to Conservation Thought,” by Charlotte Digregorio, “A Writing Life in Seventeen Syllables or Less,” by Francine Banwarth, “The Role of Kukai in The Haiku Tradition” (including a kukai), by Randy Brooks, and “Haiga: History and Technique,” by Lidia Rozmus.
For more information on Haikufest, and to pre-register, contact Charlotte Digregorio, 847-881-2664 or the Evanston Public Library, 847-448-8600.
St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, May 20-22: Haiku Canada Conference
This conference will be held at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Accommodation is available there for attendees. We were unable to obtain any details by press time about activities planned, but for more information, contact the conference organizer, Nick Avis, at nickavis-at-churchill-law(dot)nf(dot)net.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, March 26-April 22: Fifth Annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
The Cherry Blossom Festival, its website says, “embraces the first moments of spring and honors the cherry tree through its festival’s unique cultural programming, [including] viewing programs, musical performances, and fine art and craft exhibitions.”
Now, for the most part this event does not pertain directly to haiku, except insofar as possibly more haiku have been written about cherry blossoms than any other subject except, say, the moon. So if, like me, you live someplace where there really isn’t much in the way of cherry blossoms and you want to find out what all the fuss is about, this might be a great place to start.
Also, haiku poets might have a particular interest in the “Sakura Days Japan Fair,” a “family friendly traditional and modern Japanese Sakura Matsuri (Japanese Street Festival) to be held at VanDusen Botanical Garden on April 2 and 3.”
However, the festival does sponsor one very important haiku-related event, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational contest. During the Festival this year, the 2010 winning poems will be read by Christopher Gaze at the Orpheum Theatre and honoured throughout the Festival. Entries for the 2011 contest will be accepted through May 31 -- please see a full description of this contest below in the Stuff to Write section.
For more information about the festival: http://www.vcbf.ca
Bend, Oregon, June 3-5: Second Quarterly Meeting of the Haiku Society of America
Held at the historic Liberty Theatre, built in 1917 as a music and Vaudeville concert hall, this meeting has been scheduled as part of June’s First Friday Art Walk in downtown Bend.
The intrepid organizers of this event have planned “the largest display of haiku ever assembled at any Haiku Society of America Society meeting...the ‘HSA Haiku Wall’ display.” (If you’re an HSA member and you want to get in on the Haiku Wall action, see the call for submissions below in the Stuff to Write section.)
The meeting will also feature exhibits of haiga (haiku painting), sumi-e (ink paintings), photo-haiku, haiga scrolls, haiku books for sale, haiku with oshibana (Japanese art of pressed flowers), zenga (zen inspirted painting), haiku with suiseki (Japanese stone appreciation), woodblocks, haiku etchings, etc. There will be ongoing open-mic haiku readings on Friday evening all during the Art Walk and haiku readings by Christopher Herold, Johnny Baranski, Ernesto Santiago and others. Sunday morning, there will be a haiku workshop (free and open to the public) by Michael Dylan Welch, First Vice President of the HSA.
For more information: http://sites.google.com/site/haikuoregon/HSAMEETING
or contact an’ya, Oregon’s HSA Regional Coordinator, at haikubyanya-at-gmail(dot)com
Northfield, Massachusetts, June 4: Haiku Circle
This annual event takes place at the Red House Tree Farm and is nature-oriented. Workshops include a Guided Nature Walk, Nature Photography for Beginners, Nature Sketching, and a LetterPress Printing Workshop.
Featured guest readers will be Joyce Clement and Cor van den Heuvel, and there will also be an Open Mike reading for attendees.
The cost is $65 per person for early registration (by May 1st), $75 per person after May 1st. Breakfast, lunch, & dinner are provided. There is a swimming pond on the grounds and limited camping available.
To receive a brochure & sign up form, email: haikucircle-at-gmail(dot)com
Seattle, Washington, August 3-7: Haiku North America Conference
It’s not too early to plan for this biannual conference, which should be quite a bash. HNA, held every two years, is the largest and oldest gathering of haiku poets in the United States and Canada. This year lots of Seattle-area tourist activities are planned in addition to a roster of speakers, readers, and workshop presenters by haiku luminaries including Cor van den Heuvel, Richard Gilbert, David Lanoue, Carlos Colón, Fay Aoyagi, Jim Kacian, Emiko Miyashita, George Swede, and many others.
For more information: http://www.haikunorthamerica.com/ ,
or check out the HNA blog: http://haikunorthamerica.wordpress.com/ (there’s an offer up there now to match people up to share hotel rooms during the conference),
or HNA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Haiku-North-America/113127392085466
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haijinx IV:1 (March 2011)
Copyright © 2001-2011 Mark Brooks (haijinx). All rights reserved.
The copyrights of individual poems, articles, translations, and images belong to their individual authors. The editors do not necessarily endorse the opinions of authors, nor do they assume responsibility for factual errors, infringements of copyrights, or omissions in acknowledgements.
Comments or Questions? info-at-haijinx-dot-org
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