Melissa Allen
news editor, 2011
a jumble of flowers
I have been writing many things about many things for many years. My oeuvre includes an extensive collection of unpublished and indeed unfinished fiction, and a more respectable-looking collection of freelance journalism for a variety of publications including Better Homes and Gardens, most of the latter, in one way or another, about families and/or education. I didn’t really get my sea legs as a writer, though, until in May of 2010, more or less by accident, I decided to start a haiku blog called Red Dragonfly, where I share my short-form poetry as well as related commentary and essays and news about developments in the world of haiku.
This was audacious, considering that I had rarely written any poetry before and had no more than a vague idea what haiku actually was. But I quickly came to feel that it was exactly the creative vehicle I had been looking for, devoted an inordinate amount of time to it, and was fortunate enough to attract a warm, supportive community and many wise mentors who kindly tolerated my mediocre verse and uninformed musings, helped direct my reading and research, and encouraged my stronger efforts. Thanks in large part to the assistance of this kind audience, I have published or will soon publish haiku, tanka, and haibun in Notes from the Gean, Lynx, World Haiku Review, The Heron’s Nest, haijinx, Ribbons, Haibun Today, bottle rockets, Moonbathing, and contemporary haibun online. I’m looking forward to engaging with a whole new audience here at haijinx.
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