author bio - David Cobb

David Cobb (12/03/26) first got into haiku in 1977 when researching ways English was then being taught in Japanese high schools. His fascinating lady escort responded to his wayward attempts at improvisation by presenting him with a copy of Joan Giroux's The Haiku Form (Tuttle, 1974) which set him on a much surer path. In 1989-90, with the help of Dee Evetts, he founded the British Haiku Society, was its Secretary 1990-96, and since 1997 has been elected to serve as President until the end of 2002.

In chronological order, since leaving school, the twists and turns in David's life have been: (1944-1948) army conscript, service in Germany, Egypt, Palestine; (1948-51) office methods/'time and motion' analyst, Kodak Ltd; (1951-55) Bristol University, BA and teaching diploma, German and English; (1955-58) grammar school teacher, UK; (1958-62) Unesco Institute for Education, Hamburg; (1962-68) British Council teacher of English, Suan Kularb and Suksanaree secondary schools, Bangkok and Dhonburi, Thailand; (1968-72) Asst Professor of English, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok; (1972-84) head of ELT/RDU, Longman Group publishers, UK; (1984--) freelance author/advisor/editor on EFL/ESL publications, including General Editor for Macmillan of a series for African and Caribbean young readers. In the interstices between these prestigious appointments he has 'improved his idleness' by taking on a variety of short-term jobs, including postman, railway porter, Inland Revenue clerk, correspondent dealing with complaints about developing and printing, insurance claim counsellor to a garbage collection department ('there wasn't no blame on my part as a tree at the side of the road come out and hit me'), and washer-upper for the Territorial Army.

David shares with John Crook (haijinx: Vol I, No 1 spotlight) a fascination with the art of Paul Nash and listens to a wide range of mainly classical music. He did ceramics for a time as an evening hobby and was renowned in his class for his life-size camel heads, the majority of which exploded in the kiln. He has played a great deal of club cricket, and his performances at the game get better the more he talks about them. He fidgets a lot with a small overstocked garden, trying to keep plants in order; those that don't obey him tend to get short shrift. He treats his haiku like his plants, being a habitual pruner and rearranger.

David has spoken at several international haiku festivals: in 1994, at the Second International Haiku Festival, organised by Ion and Mihaela Codrescu in Constanta, Romainia; in 1999, at the Berlin Haiku Festival, organised by Annika Reich and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt; in 2000, at the Global Haiku Festival, organised by Randy Brooks, in Decatur, USA; and twice (1995 and 2000) at seminars organised by Erika Schwalm and the Frankfurt group of the Deutsche Haiku-Gesellschaft. In 1997, he tried to give a new dimension to the UK's National Poetry Day by organising a cross-Channel celebration of haiku, in which 25 well-known haiku poets from Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK, travelled together (composing haiku in Eurotunnel, to the accompaniment of live violin music!) and performed for the public on both sides of the Channel on the same day.

Two of David's collections have received Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards: Mounting Shadows, commended, 1992; Jumping From Kiyomizu, second prize, 1997; and The Iron Book of British Haiku, which he edited in tandem with Martin Lucas, received a special acknowledgment in the 1998 HSA Awards. His haibun, Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore, gained a second place in the Woodnotes International Haibun Contest, 1996. Among other prizes are a Mainichi Daily News annual first prize in 1990, and the Cardiff International Haiku Contest first prize in 1991. The rather presumptuous total stands at 14 prizes at all grades in Japan, 3 in New Zealand, 3 in USA, 3 in UK, 1 in Australia, 1 in Croatia, and 1 in Yugoslavia.

The Iron Book of British Haiku, (co-editor with Martin Lucas), 1998
The Haiku Hundred, (co-editor with James Kirkup and Peter Mortimer), 1991
The Genius of Haiku — readings from R H Blyth, (co-editor with Stephen H Gill), 1994
The BHS Haiku Kit (for teachers), (co-editor with Susan Rowley and others), 1996
Tadpoles — an anthology of haiku by British schoolchildren, 1999

A Leap in the Light (141 haiku and senryu), Equinox Press, 1991
Mounting Shadows (142 haiku and senryu), Equinox Press, 1992
Jumping from Kiyomizu (164 haiku and senryu), Iron Press, 1996
Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore (a 10,000 word haibun), Equinox Press, 1997
A Bowl of Sloes (50 haiku and senryu), Snapshot Press, 2000

His haiku also appear in Global Haiku, ed. George Swede and Randy Brooks, 2000, and The Acorn Book of Contemporary Haiku, ed. Lucien Stryk and Kevin Bailey, 2000.

Orders for all of the above (except The Genius of Haiku, now out-of-print) may be placed via the BHS website.

There have also been editions of his haiku/senryu in original and translation into the language of the country of publication in Germany (2 books) and the Netherlands (1 book)

David's work has appeared since 1990 in every issue of Blithe Spirit (UK), and irregularly in most of the well-known haiku magazines in 9 other countries. His work has been featured in literary journals in France and Romania.

In 2000, he introduced and adjudicated for The Times newspaper (UK) a national haiku competition which attracted 5,500 entries.

article: "Humour in Haiku" - previously unpublished
haiku: "after the snowman" - Blithe Spirit and Mounting Shadows
haiku: "froth on his whiskers" - Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore and Global Haiku
haiku: "children panicking" - Jumping from Kiyomizu, BHS Haiku Kit, and others
haiku: "a boil in my nose" - previously unpublished
haiku: "giving his daughter away" - Woodnotes and Jumping from Kiyomizu
haiku: "a cloudless sky" - Modern Haiku, Woodpecker, and A Leap in the Light
haiku: "daffodil morning" - New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, 1993 and Jumping from Kiyomizu
haiku: "a bust of wet clay" - New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology, 1995 and Jumping from Kiyomizu
haiku (in haiga): "the full moon" - Blithe Spirit
haiku: "convent" - Jumping from Kiyomizu and Global Haiku
haiku: "a scarecrow" - previously unpublished
haiku: "Palm Court" - Woodpecker
haiku: "umbrella’d lovers" - Mounting Shadows, Mainichi Daily News (1991), and Global Haiku
haiku: "shelter from the rain" - Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore and Global Haiku
haiku: "a whiff of horse muck" - Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore and Global Haiku

biography

contests & awards

chapbooks, books, collections, & anthologies

newspaper, magazine, & journal appearances

haijinx I:2 (summer 2001)