Alan Summers lives in Bristol, in the southwest of England, UK. He was born in Chelsea, London, but only stayed there a year. Alan has been writing haiku for around seven years now, In 1994 the Brisbane Paper Wasp Haiku Group (Jack Stamm had been involved in its early days) invited a few writers to join. Now years later they are a truly international haiku group and publisher of the Paper Wasp haiku magazine. Alan later became a Life Member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, Queensland Inc. He was honoured by doing well in 1994 with their first haiku contest, and then by winning the 1995 and 1996 FAWQ haiku competitions. In 1997, Alan, brought out his first haiku collection, 'sundog' haiku journal: an australian year. It was reprinted in 1998. Alan is the recently retired General Secretary of the British Haiku Society, but has kept himself busy by being a co-moderator on the shiki-temp haiku list, a co-editor of haijinx (he highly recommends this site <g>), a member of the editorial board of the Red Moon Anthology series, a co-foundation member of HaikuOz, and as the founder of Naked Haijin Productions. Naked Haijin Productions aims to promote the haiku genre to wider audiences through transmedia projects. This was already in progress, when Alan was invited to the Official Opening of the Katikati Haiku Pathway, in New Zealand, last year, where he had his 'several ducklings' haiku carved into stone, a traditional Japanese custom that the township of Katikati continued. While there, he obtained archival footage of haiku poets such as Ernest J Berry of New Zealand. Alan headlined the Bath PoetryCan event in September 2001 at the Window Arts Centre reading/performing haiku and haibun. Also in September 2001 he was involved in the Japan2001/ProArt haiku event: HAIKU – INSPIRATION – IMAGE. You can see photos here. Alan stayed busy through the end of 2001 with live events. On March 2, 2002, Alan was presenting a Naked Haijin Productions event with Karen Hoy, Paul Conneally and Kevin Ryan at the: HAIKU – INSPIRATION – IMAGE - CREATION event in association with the Japan 2001 festival/ProArt. Alan also read at the Kingston Spring Arts Festival, March 16, with Poetry Force organised by Lizzie Squires. Alan will be headlining a poetry event at the new and hugely popular ‘Cafe Unlimited’ venue in Bristol this coming May. And 2002 the 'Haiku Experience' will be another main project of NHP achieved. So you can see Alan keeps busy! Alan received an honorable mention in the International Section of the 5th Mainichi Haiku Contest. Alan received Second Prize in the January-February 2002 contest for In Buddha’s Temple. Alan's haiku appear in William J. Higginson's Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha International, 1996). Alan was also included in Red Moon Anthology 1997 and Red Moon Anthology 1998. Previous credits include: Frogpond, Blithe Spirit, Snapshots, Presence, Modern Haiku, Point Judith Light, Hobo, Micropress Yates, Mainichi Daily News, Haiku International, Azami, Brussels Sprout, Haiku Spirit, still, Haiku Quarterly, Paper Wasp, Ko, Lynx, In Buddha’s Temple, Vrabac, New Zealand Poetry Society, Albatros, Poetrycan, and others. feature (w/ haijinx editors): "editors' picks I-2" - previously unpublished feature (w/ haijinx editors): "editors' picks I-1" - previously unpublished haiku (in haiga): "the old dunny's roof" - received 3rd place, Canadian Writer's Journal Competition, 1995. ("dunny" is Aussie slang for outdoor toilet) haiku: "strange heat" - previously unpublished
biography
contests & awards
chapbooks, books, collections, & anthologies
newspaper, magazine, & journal appearances
review: "Flamingo Shapes by John Barlow" - previously unpublished
haiku: "falling down" - previously unpublished
the links below were all live through 2003. some have been disabled in this archive here about haijinx | subscribe to haijinx | submit your work | haijinx products now john crook award 2002 results | haijinx weekly wire | editor's blog | status then I:1 | I:2 | memorial | II:1 | contributor index there haikai.info | haikai.org | other links Originally Published: 2001-2003 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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Revised Archive: March, 2010