William J. Higginson was born in New York City in 1938, and has lived in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, West Texas, Connecticut, Aomori Prefecture (Japan), and now in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Studying Japanese language at Yale University (for the US Air Force) in 1960, he became fascinated with haiku and gradually all of traditional Japanese poetry. Since returning to school in the late 1960s he has pursued modern poetry, particularly the work of William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound and their followers (Objectivists, Black Mountain, Beats, etc.) as well. He continues to write poems in many styles, though still best known for his work on haiku and related materials. Higginson gives readings, workshops, and lectures widely in North America and Asia, and was recently on the selection committee for the first Masaoka Shiki Prize in International Haiku presented by Ehime Prefecture, Japan. Higginson has received numerous awards for his writing, including Merit Book Awards from the Haiku Society of America and first place in the World Haiku Achievements Competition at the World Haiku Festival 2000, London. His major books in the field are The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku, with Penny Harter (McGraw-Hill, 1985; Kodansha International, 1989), The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World (KI, 1996), and Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (KI, 1996). Lately, with Tadashi Kondô, he has co-translated and published two collections of contemporary Japanese haiku from his own From Here Press: Red Fuji: Selected Haiku of Yatsuka Ishihara (1997) and Over the Wave: Selected Haiku of Ritsuo Okada (2001). article: "Humor in Bashô's Hokku: III Cosmic Humor" - previously unpublished article: "Humor in Bashô's Hokku: II Playing in the Tradition" - previously unpublished article: "Humor in Bashô's Hokku: I The Childlike" - previously unpublished
biography
contests & awards
chapbooks, books, collections, & anthologies
haiku: "before the fireworks" - previously unpublished
haiku: "the lilac bush" - previously unpublished
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