Haiku Society of America Meetings
Haiku Society of America meetings are held at various locations throughout the U. S. The HSA also supports other local, national and international haiku activities.
The locations, times, and programs for the meetings appear in the HSA Newsletter and on this page of the HSA Web site. Announcements and details of HSA regional meetings appear in the HSA Newsletter. Inquiries regarding regional meetings can also be addressed to the appropriate Regional Coordinator. Dates, times and locations are subject to change. Please verify your travel plans with the coordinator for each meeting.
Haiku Society of America 2022
National Virtual ConferenceThe conference was on ZOOM
Saturday, June 4 — Sunday, June 5The presentations made at the 2022 HSA Virtual National Conference are now available on YouTube. Here are the links to each:
Please see the Haiku Society of America videos on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoWrz8ICDzS30J335UHj1Fg
~ ~ ~
Saturday, June 4, 2022.
Alan Summers - The Haiku Reader
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqu5rvVCuJQ
This 10 minute presentation is followed by an opportunity for 30 minutes of Q&A. The Haiku Reader is both anthology and campaign aimed to grab readers around the world, and showcase haiku (and senryu) as an intriguing poetic and inclusive genre. The anthology process is designed to be immersive and this Q&A experience is so that you can ask why this is different, what’s meant by “immersive”, and other questions.
Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver - Haiku Chronicles 13th Anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ElLEyEFlv8
The hosts discuss the pioneering of the first haiku podcast and its global impact. This presentation includes excerpts from its most popular audio and video episodes, along with backstories of their creation and new episodes to come. This will be a formal 40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A.
David G. Lanoue - Poetry in English: How Renku Changed Everything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpskEKkgXr0
Early in the twentieth century Ezra Pound discovered hokku: the specially constructed starting verse of renga that was already in Japan (thanks to Shiki) morphing into the one-verse art of haiku. Pound’s encounter with hokku revolutionized English-language poetry. Before he met hokku, verse in England and in English-speaking countries was more linear, more chronological, more discursive, more abstract, more verbose, and more locked inside prison of strict meter. After Pound’s encounter with Japanese hokku, English-language poetry became (on the whole) less linear, less time-bound, more evocative, more imagistic, more concise, and much freer in its meter. This presentation will show how the aesthetic assumptions and Buddhist philosophy embodied in renga made modern Anglo-American poetry possible
Garry Gay - Rengay: A Modern Linking Form
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_RiK0IA1QA
This workshop introduces participants to the collaborative linking form called “rengay.” It was taught by its creator Garry Gay. This one hour worshop gives you a brief introduction to its history and how to write a two or three person rengay. This is a very fun and enjoyable form to work in and we will be writing some together. If you can write haiku, you can write rengay.
Open Mike Poetry Readings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JKntCE0a64&t=13s
HSA conference attendees share a few of thier own haiku.
Jacob Salzer - Dreams in Haiku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEATLPUYjGg
A short 20-minute presentation on dreams in haiku will be provided. This presentation highlights 3 key reasons why dreams in haiku are meaningful: 1) dreams can encourage us to have empathy and compassion for the subject(s) in the haiku, 2) dreams can signify hopes and visions for the future and 3) dreams can inspire our imagination. 7 haiku examples will be provided by Bash?, Buson, and a few haiku by poets living today. 25 minutes will be dedicated to break-out rooms for everyone to talk about dreams and write haiku including the word dream or dreams. For the last 5 minutes, I will plan on briefly mentioning my new haiku & tanka book and my haiku poet interviews blog.
Joshua Gage - A Speculative Haiku Presentation and Exercise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsd3Et2pByI
We will start with a presentation on scifaiku and it's various iterations across speculative genres. We'll explore the differences between scifaiku and traditional English Language Haiku as well as how the craft tools of ELH work to create a strong speculative haiku. We'll then walk through a few exercises to practice writing speculative haiku.
Sunday, June 5, 2022.
Crystal Simone Smith - Achieving Ekphrastic Haiku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLOPIah-kDU
The traditional haiku structure of sensory elements and imagery offers an ideal way to respond to visual art forms like paintings and photographs, also known as ekphrastic poetry form. Intrinsically, the “haiku moment” is not evoked by nature, but by the work encountered. To create successful ekphrastic haiku, we will look at various, common approaches to the practice. Many ekphrastic poems are meditations on time or subject matter, close interpretations of the work, or a homage to the work, with the goal forming a verse interpretation of the art that resonates.
Caroline Skanne - How to Evaluate Our Own Haiku?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgtyhOlz8g0
This presentation will explore approaches to evaluating your own haiku. A few key concepts underpinning English-language haiku, such as the images, the use of space, different techniques, subject matter & aesthetic principles; will be explored in relation to reading, writing & thinking about haiku. Emphasis will be placed on the personal journey, voice & authenticity. It will finish with a Q&A session.
Terri French - Poetry in Motion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JV9_R2BkhM
For the last two and a half years my husband and I have been traveling the US in our RV dubbed Poetry in Motion/ We called these travels Arr Arr V Adventures. I took many photos documenting our journey and wrote many poems inspired by the beautiful sights and tremendous experiences we had. This keynote presentation consists of twenty-five slides with haiku and haibun. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.
Lunch Break Conversation
Agnes Eva Savich - Mining Your Past: Haiku from Childhood, Homeland, and Previous Writings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21I2THRPczo
Childhood, cultural roots, early writings can all feed our modern haiku practice, when we delve into our own archives: old photographs, family history, and journals. Through the lens of my own childhood in Poland, cultural family traditions, and some early writings, I will show how one's own history and unique cultural memories act as source material for your current writing. Examples from other writers will support these concepts, as well as writing exercises in which you consider your own archives in these three areas for inspiration.
Jay Friedenberg and Colleen Farrelly - A Computational Linguistics Approach to Understanding Haiku
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX7GTtynNCc
Haiku have been studied qualitatively for decades but there are few statistical approaches to understanding its properties. In this presentation we have analyzed the winning poems from all of the HSA contests since inception and compared them to a representative and random sample of haiku and senryu from every published issue of Frogpond, the society's journal. We note the similarities and differences between exceptional and "average" haiku in terms of word type and syntactical usage.
Chuck Brickley and Christopher Herold - RINGS: A Reverberation of Haibun
Chris and Chuck have been bouncing haiku, stories, and revelations off each other for years. Out of their kinship grew the idea of a tag-team haibun reading, which they first performed at the Haiku Canada Weekend conference in Vancouver, 2019. Chris read the prose of his haibun, Chuck, the haiku; then, vice versa, Chuck read the prose of his haibun, Chris, the haiku. They will reprise this collaboration with a (mostly) new set of haibun, and with a few added elements inspired by the video platform.• • •
Haiku Society of America 2022
National Zoom Conference ProgramSaturday, June 4, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. HSA Presidential Address and Opening Statements
Moderator Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Alan Summers - The Haiku Reader
This 10 minute presentation is followed by an opportunity for 30 minutes of Q&A. The Haiku Reader is both anthology and campaign aimed to grab readers around the world, and showcase haiku (and senryu) as an intriguing poetic and inclusive genre. The anthology process is designed to be immersive and this Q&A experience is so that you can ask why this is different, what’s meant by “immersive”, and other questions. This is not only to gain some answers, it’s to consider a chance to steer and encourage others to be “a haiku reader’.
Japan Times award-winning writer Alan Summers is founder of Call of the Page, supporting writers worldwide, and its chief tutor for group or one-to-one sessions. He’s editor-in-chief for The Haiku Reader (https://thehaikureader.blogspot.com) focusing on supporting readers worldwide.
Moderator Himanshu Vyas/Bill Deegan
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver - Haiku Chronicles 13th Anniversary
Hosts Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver discuss the pioneering of the first haiku podcast and its global impact. This presentation includes excerpts from its most popular audio and video episodes, along with backstories of their creation and new episodes to come. This will be a formal 40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A.
Alan Pizzarelli has been writing haiku and related forms for more than 50 years. Many of his poems have achieved worldwide acclaim and have appeared in a variety of textbooks, journals, and major anthologies. He is the author of 14 collections of poetry, including the highly popular Frozen Socks and Mind Zaps (House of Haiku Books).
Donna Beaver is an Alaska Native (Tlingit/Tsimshian) of the Kaagwaaataan clan, also known as the Wolf House, is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist. She has been writing haiku for over 25 years. Awarded the Alaska Native Writer’s Award for Literature from the University of Alaska (2000) for her free verse work. Donna is co-producer and co-host with Alan Pizzarelli of the podcast Haiku Chronicles.
Moderator Himanshu Vyas
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. Benedict Grant - Alcohol and Alcoholism in Haiku and Senryu
Recently, there has been renewed interest in the subject of alcohol in haiku and senryu. In “Embracing the Moon: Haiku About Drinking” (Modern Haiku 51.3, Autumn 2020), Kristin Lindquist provided a survey of how alcohol has been portrayed by mostly contemporary English-language haiku poets. Her essay elicited a response from Robert Epstein, “Haiku Poetry and the Darker Side of Drinking” (31 January 2021, Charlotte DiGregorio’s Writers’ Blog), who cautioned against the dangers of romanticising drinking, reminding us of the physical, emotional and psychological damage caused by alcoholism. In the course of doing so, Epstein asked a rhetorical question: ‘Perhaps those who have descended into the hell realm of dependency have not left much of a poetic record of that descent. Or, they may feel too humiliated or guilt-ridden to do so.’ I would like to respond to this question and join the broader discussion of the subject by way of introducing my own collection of poems, spirit level (Red Moon Press, May 2022) which charts a journey through alcoholism in the first person. In presenting a selection of poems from this collection, I explore how haiku and senryu can shed light on the experience of alcoholism with understanding, compassion, hope—even, as unlikely as it sounds, humour. I also discuss how this form of poetry might function therapeutically for those who are suffering from this affliction or have been affected by it.
Benedict Grant was born in Glasgow, Scotland and lives with his family in Nova Scotia, Canada. A professor of English as well as a creative writer, his haiku and senryu have appeared in many journals and have been awarded several Honourable Mentions. His debut collection, Spirit Level, is appearing this summer with Red Moon Press.
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. David G. Lanoue - Poetry in English: How Renku Changed Everything
Early in the twentieth century Ezra Pound discovered hokku: the specially constructed starting verse of renga that was already in Japan (thanks to Shiki) morphing into the one-verse art of haiku. Pound’s encounter with hokku revolutionized English-language poetry. Before he met hokku, verse in England and in English-speaking countries was more linear, more chronological, more discursive, more abstract, more verbose, and more locked inside prison of strict meter. After Pound’s encounter with Japanese hokku, English-language poetry became (on the whole) less linear, less time-bound, more evocative, more imagistic, more concise, and much freer in its meter. This presentation will show how the aesthetic assumptions and Buddhist philosophy embodied in renga made modern Anglo-American poetry possible.
Dr. David G. Lanoue is the RosaMary Endowed Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. Since his first essay on Issa’s frogs appeared in Modern Haiku in 1985, he has published several books and over fifty essays on Japanese haiku. He maintains the Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website, for which he has translated 11,670 haiku . . . so far.
Moderator Ce Rosenow
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Garry Gay - Rengay: A Modern Linking Form
This workshop will introduce you to the collaborative linking form called “rengay.” It will be taught by its creator Garry Gay. This one hour worshop will give you a brief introduction to its history and how to write a two or three person rengay. This is a very fun and enjoyable form to work in and we will be writing some together. If you can write haiku, you can write rengay.
Garry Gay is the president of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, past president of Haiku Society of America , Additionally in 1991 he founded Haiku North America, a biennial haiku conference. In 1996 he co-founded the American Haiku Archives in Sacramento, California. He is the creator of the poetic form called Rengay.
Moderator Shelley Baker-Gard
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Open Mike Poetry Readings - Bring your favorite poems and share them!
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Jacob Salzer - Dreams in Haiku
A short 20-minute presentation on dreams in haiku will be provided. This presentation highlights 3 key reasons why dreams in haiku are meaningful: 1) dreams can encourage us to have empathy and compassion for the subject(s) in the haiku, 2) dreams can signify hopes and visions for the future and 3) dreams can inspire our imagination. 7 haiku examples will be provided by Bash?, Buson, and a few haiku by poets living today. 25 minutes will be dedicated to break-out rooms for everyone to talk about dreams and write haiku including the word dream or dreams. For the last 5 minutes, I will plan on briefly mentioning my new haiku & tanka book and my haiku poet interviews blog. (or can post in the chat)
Jacob D. Salzer wrote his first haiku in 2006. He is the author of Mare Liberum: Haiku & Tanka (Lulu, 2020) and the co-author of Echoes: A Collection of Linked-Verse Poetry with Michelle Hyatt (Lulu, 2020). Jacob has also edited haiku anthologies, serves as a co-commentator on the Haiku Commentary blog (with Nicholas Klacsanzky and Hifsa Ashraf) and is the founding editor of the Haiku Poet Interviews blog. Web links: https://jsalzer.wixsite.com/mareliberumhaiku(Haiku/poetry website) https://haikupoetinterviews.wordpress.com/ (Haiku Poet Interviews blog) https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/ (Haiku Commentary blog)
Moderator Seretta Martin
7:00 p.m. - 7:50 p.m. Joshua Gage - A Speculative Haiku Presentation and Exercise
We will start with a presentation on scifaiku and it’s various iterations across speculative genres. We’ll explore the differences between scifaiku and traditional English Language Haiku as well as how the craft tools of ELH work to create a strong speculative haiku. We’ll then walk through a few exercises to practice writing speculative haiku.
Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. His newest chapbook, blips on a screen, is available on Cuttlefish Books. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, Ethiopian coffee, and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs.
Moderator Celia Powles
Sunday, June 5, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Opening Statements - HSA President Jay Friedenberg
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Crystal Simone Smith - Achieving Ekphrastic Haiku
The traditional haiku structure of sensory elements and imagery offers an ideal way to respond to visual art forms like paintings and photographs, also known as ekphrastic poetry form. Intrinsically, the “haiku moment” is not evoked by nature, but by the work encountered. To create successful ekphrastic haiku, we will look at various, common approaches to the practice. Many ekphrastic poems are meditations on time or subject matter, close interpretations of the work, or a homage to the work, with the goal forming a verse interpretation of the art that resonates.
Crystal Simone Smith is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Routes Home, Finishing Line Press (2013) and Running Music, Longleaf Press (2014). She is also the author of Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun (2016). Her work has appeared in numerous journals including: Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian II: Literature in the African Diaspora, African American Review, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She is an alumna of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers Conference. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Durham, NC with her husband and two sons where she teaches English Composition and Creative Writing. She is the Managing Editor of Backbone Press.
Moderator Ce Rosenow
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Caroline Skanne - How to Evaluate Our Own Haiku?
This presentation will explore approaches to evaluating your own haiku. A few key concepts underpinning English-language haiku, such as the images, the use of space, different techniques, subject matter & aesthetic principles; will be explored in relation to reading, writing & thinking about haiku. Emphasis will be placed on the personal journey, voice & authenticity. It will finish with a Q&A session.
Caroline Skanne is the editor of hedgerow (www.hedgerowhaiku.com) & Blithe Spirit (the Journal of the British Haiku Society). Born in Stockholm, Sweden, she now lives with her family by the River Medway, in Upnor, UK. (More info & samples of her work at www.carolineskanne.com).
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
1:00 p.m. -1:50 p.m. Terri French - Poetry in Motion
For the last two and a half years my husband and I have been traveling the US in our RV dubbed Poetry in Motion/ We called these travels Arr Arr V Adventures. I took many photos documenting our journey and wrote many poems inspired by the beautiful sights and tremendous experiences we had. This keynote presentation consists of twenty-five slides with haiku and haibun. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.
Terri currently serves on the board of The Haiku Foundation. She is also on the editorial team of the online journal, contemporary haibun online. Terri is past southeast regional coordinator of The Haiku Society of America and is former editor of Prune Juice Journal of senryu and kyoka.
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. Agnes Eva Savich - Mining Your Past: Haiku from Childhood, Homeland, and Previous Writings
Childhood, cultural roots, early writings can all feed our modern haiku practice, when we delve into our own archives: old photographs, family history, and journals. Through the lens of my own childhood in Poland, cultural family traditions, and some early writings, I will show how one’s own history and unique cultural memories act as source material for your current writing. Examples from other writers will support these concepts, as well as writing exercises in which you consider your own archives in these three areas for inspiration.
Agnes Eva Savich is a university program coordinator, oboist, and widely-published haiku poet since 2004. Among her other activities, she founded (2019) and still leads the Austin Texas Haiku Group; served as judge of The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards (2022) and the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Contest (2020); edited A Charm of Finches: The Haiku Society of America Southwest Region 2021 members’ anthology; and prepared the Memorial Presentation for Haiku North America 2021. Savich has resided in Poland, France, and Chicago, and currently lives in Pflugerville, near Austin, Texas.
Moderator Jim Ellis
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Jay Friedenberg and Colleen Farrelly - A Computational Linguistics Approach to Understanding Haiku
Haiku have been studied qualitatively for decades but there are few statistical approaches to understanding its properties. In this presentation we have analyzed the winning poems from all of the HSA contests since inception and compared them to a representative and random sample of haiku and senryu from every published issue of Frogpond, the society’s journal. We note the similarities and differences between exceptional and “average” haiku in terms of word type and syntactical usage.
Jay Friedenberg is President of the Haiku Society of America and served for two years as Associate Editor of the organization’s journal Frogpond. He is a member of the Spring Street Haiku Group that meets monthly in New York City. Jay has had his poetry accepted in numerous U.S. and international journals and has published several book collections of his work. He has won multiple U.S. and International haiku contests.
Colleen M. Farrelly is a machine learning scientist who has been writing haiku and haibun for a few years, as well as other forms of poetry for years before coming across haiku/haibun. Her areas of research include natural language processing and topological data analysis.
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Haiku Social Hour. Come and Schmooze with your Friends or Make New Ones!
Moderator Jacob Blumner
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Chuck Brickley and Christopher Herold - RINGS: A Reverberation of Haibun
Chris and Chuck have been bouncing haiku, stories, and revelations off each other for years. Out of their kinship grew the idea of a tag-team haibun reading, which they first performed at the Haiku Canada Weekend conference in Vancouver, 2019. Chris read the prose of his haibun, Chuck, the haiku; then, vice versa, Chuck read the prose of his haibun, Chris, the haiku. They will reprise this collaboration with a (mostly) new set of haibun, and with a few added elements inspired by the video platform.
Chuck Brickley is the author of EARTHSHINE, a multi-award winning collection of haiku (in its fourth printing). One of his haibun was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, another for the Sonders Small Fiction Award. Chuck is currently the 2nd Vice President of HSA.
Christopher Herold’s haikai have been honored world-wide. Most recently his work was featured, along with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, William Dietrich, and renowned wood-engraver Richard Wagener, in the fine-press book, Cascadia, published by Nawakum Press (winner of the Carl Herzog Award of Excellence). Christopher is the co-founder of The Heron’s Nest haiku journal.
Moderator Roger Jones
7:00 p.m. - 7:10 p.m. Closing Remarks - HSA President
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
~~~
Technical Moderator: Ignatius Fay will be participating the entire day and available as a backup host throughout the conference. Email at hsabulletin@gmail.com if you need to be admitted from the waiting room or are having technical difficulties.
Haiku Society of America 2022
National ZOOM ConferenceJune 4 & 5, 2022
This marks the third year in a row we will be having our conference online via Zoom. We have an exciting roster of world class speakers and events lined up. An abbreviated schedule and full conference program including abstracts is shown below.
The conference will run for a full weekend and is scheduled this year for Saturday, June 4 - Sunday, June 5. It will consist of a series of talks, workshops, and social gatherings that will span both days. Mark your calendars! In order to register, please send an email to: hsabulletin@gmail.com.
We will send out a confirmed registration list prior to the conference. Please notify us in advance if you need to cancel so that we can free up spaces for others.
The conference is scheduled for
Saturday, June 4 — Sunday, June 5See below for the schedule and program for the conference.
Haiku Society of America 2022
National ZOOM Conference ScheduleSaturday, June 4, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. HSA Presidential Address and Opening Statements
Moderator Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Alan Summers - The Haiku Reader
Moderator Himanshu Vyas/Bill Deegan
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver - Haiku Chronicles 13th Anniversary
Moderator Himanshu Vyas
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. Benedict Grant - Alcohol and Alcoholism in Haiku and Senryu
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. David G. Lanoue - Poetry in English: How Renku Changed Everything
Moderator Ce Rosenow
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Garry Gay - Rengay: A Modern Linking Form
Moderator Shelley Baker-Gard
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Open Mike Poetry Readings
- Bring Your Favorite Poems and Share Them!Moderator Michael Henry Lee
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Jacob Salzer - Dreams in Haiku
Moderator Seretta Martin
7:00 p.m. - 7:50 p.m. Joshua Gage - A Speculative Haiku Presentation and Exercise
Moderator Celia Powles
Technical Moderator: Ignatius Fay will be participating the entire day and available as a backup host throughout the conference. Email at hsabulletin@gmail.com if you need to be admitted from the waiting room or are having technical difficulties.
Sunday, June 5, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Opening Statements - HSA President Jay Friedenberg
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Crystal Simone Smith - Achieving Ekphrastic Haiku
Moderator Ce Rosenow
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Caroline Skanne - How to Evaluate Our Own Haiku?
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
1:00 p.m. -1:50 p.m. Terri French - Poetry in Motion
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. Agnes Eva Savich - Mining Your Past: Haiku from Childhood, Homeland, and Previous Writings
Moderator Jim Ellis
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Jay Friedenberg and Colleen Farrelly - A Computational Linguistics Approach to Understanding Haiku
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Haiku Social Hour. Come and Schmooze with your Friends or Make New Ones!
Moderator Jacob Blumner
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Chuck Brickley and Christopher Herold - RINGS: A Reverberation of Haibun
Moderator Roger Jones
7:00 p.m. - 7:10 p.m. Closing Remarks - HSA President
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
Technical Moderator: Ignatius Fay will be participating the entire day and available as a backup host throughout the conference. Email at hsabulletin@gmail.com if you need to be admitted from the waiting room or are having technical difficulties.
• • •
Haiku Society of America 2022
National Zoom Conference ProgramSaturday, June 4, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. HSA Presidential Address and Opening Statements
Moderator Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Alan Summers - The Haiku Reader
This 10 minute presentation is followed by an opportunity for 30 minutes of Q&A. The Haiku Reader is both anthology and campaign aimed to grab readers around the world, and showcase haiku (and senryu) as an intriguing poetic and inclusive genre. The anthology process is designed to be immersive and this Q&A experience is so that you can ask why this is different, what’s meant by “immersive”, and other questions. This is not only to gain some answers, it’s to consider a chance to steer and encourage others to be “a haiku reader’.
Japan Times award-winning writer Alan Summers is founder of Call of the Page, supporting writers worldwide, and its chief tutor for group or one-to-one sessions. He’s editor-in-chief for The Haiku Reader (https://thehaikureader.blogspot.com) focusing on supporting readers worldwide.
Moderator Himanshu Vyas/Bill Deegan
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver - Haiku Chronicles 13th Anniversary
Hosts Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver discuss the pioneering of the first haiku podcast and its global impact. This presentation includes excerpts from its most popular audio and video episodes, along with backstories of their creation and new episodes to come. This will be a formal 40 min. presentation with 10 min. Q&A.
Alan Pizzarelli has been writing haiku and related forms for more than 50 years. Many of his poems have achieved worldwide acclaim and have appeared in a variety of textbooks, journals, and major anthologies. He is the author of 14 collections of poetry, including the highly popular Frozen Socks and Mind Zaps (House of Haiku Books).
Donna Beaver is an Alaska Native (Tlingit/Tsimshian) of the Kaagwaaataan clan, also known as the Wolf House, is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist. She has been writing haiku for over 25 years. Awarded the Alaska Native Writer’s Award for Literature from the University of Alaska (2000) for her free verse work. Donna is co-producer and co-host with Alan Pizzarelli of the podcast Haiku Chronicles.
Moderator Himanshu Vyas
1:00 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. Benedict Grant - Alcohol and Alcoholism in Haiku and Senryu
Recently, there has been renewed interest in the subject of alcohol in haiku and senryu. In “Embracing the Moon: Haiku About Drinking” (Modern Haiku 51.3, Autumn 2020), Kristin Lindquist provided a survey of how alcohol has been portrayed by mostly contemporary English-language haiku poets. Her essay elicited a response from Robert Epstein, “Haiku Poetry and the Darker Side of Drinking” (31 January 2021, Charlotte DiGregorio’s Writers’ Blog), who cautioned against the dangers of romanticising drinking, reminding us of the physical, emotional and psychological damage caused by alcoholism. In the course of doing so, Epstein asked a rhetorical question: ‘Perhaps those who have descended into the hell realm of dependency have not left much of a poetic record of that descent. Or, they may feel too humiliated or guilt-ridden to do so.’ I would like to respond to this question and join the broader discussion of the subject by way of introducing my own collection of poems, spirit level (Red Moon Press, May 2022) which charts a journey through alcoholism in the first person. In presenting a selection of poems from this collection, I explore how haiku and senryu can shed light on the experience of alcoholism with understanding, compassion, hope—even, as unlikely as it sounds, humour. I also discuss how this form of poetry might function therapeutically for those who are suffering from this affliction or have been affected by it.
Benedict Grant was born in Glasgow, Scotland and lives with his family in Nova Scotia, Canada. A professor of English as well as a creative writer, his haiku and senryu have appeared in many journals and have been awarded several Honourable Mentions. His debut collection, Spirit Level, is appearing this summer with Red Moon Press.
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. David G. Lanoue - Poetry in English: How Renku Changed Everything
Early in the twentieth century Ezra Pound discovered hokku: the specially constructed starting verse of renga that was already in Japan (thanks to Shiki) morphing into the one-verse art of haiku. Pound’s encounter with hokku revolutionized English-language poetry. Before he met hokku, verse in England and in English-speaking countries was more linear, more chronological, more discursive, more abstract, more verbose, and more locked inside prison of strict meter. After Pound’s encounter with Japanese hokku, English-language poetry became (on the whole) less linear, less time-bound, more evocative, more imagistic, more concise, and much freer in its meter. This presentation will show how the aesthetic assumptions and Buddhist philosophy embodied in renga made modern Anglo-American poetry possible.
Dr. David G. Lanoue is the RosaMary Endowed Professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. Since his first essay on Issa’s frogs appeared in Modern Haiku in 1985, he has published several books and over fifty essays on Japanese haiku. He maintains the Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website, for which he has translated 11,670 haiku . . . so far.
Moderator Ce Rosenow
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Garry Gay - Rengay: A Modern Linking Form
This workshop will introduce you to the collaborative linking form called “rengay.” It will be taught by its creator Garry Gay. This one hour worshop will give you a brief introduction to its history and how to write a two or three person rengay. This is a very fun and enjoyable form to work in and we will be writing some together. If you can write haiku, you can write rengay.
Garry Gay is the president of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, past president of Haiku Society of America , Additionally in 1991 he founded Haiku North America, a biennial haiku conference. In 1996 he co-founded the American Haiku Archives in Sacramento, California. He is the creator of the poetic form called Rengay.
Moderator Shelley Baker-Gard
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Open Mike Poetry Readings - Bring your favorite poems and share them!
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Jacob Salzer - Dreams in Haiku
A short 20-minute presentation on dreams in haiku will be provided. This presentation highlights 3 key reasons why dreams in haiku are meaningful: 1) dreams can encourage us to have empathy and compassion for the subject(s) in the haiku, 2) dreams can signify hopes and visions for the future and 3) dreams can inspire our imagination. 7 haiku examples will be provided by Bash?, Buson, and a few haiku by poets living today. 25 minutes will be dedicated to break-out rooms for everyone to talk about dreams and write haiku including the word dream or dreams. For the last 5 minutes, I will plan on briefly mentioning my new haiku & tanka book and my haiku poet interviews blog. (or can post in the chat)
Jacob D. Salzer wrote his first haiku in 2006. He is the author of Mare Liberum: Haiku & Tanka (Lulu, 2020) and the co-author of Echoes: A Collection of Linked-Verse Poetry with Michelle Hyatt (Lulu, 2020). Jacob has also edited haiku anthologies, serves as a co-commentator on the Haiku Commentary blog (with Nicholas Klacsanzky and Hifsa Ashraf) and is the founding editor of the Haiku Poet Interviews blog. Web links: https://jsalzer.wixsite.com/mareliberumhaiku(Haiku/poetry website) https://haikupoetinterviews.wordpress.com/ (Haiku Poet Interviews blog) https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/ (Haiku Commentary blog)
Moderator Seretta Martin
7:00 p.m. - 7:50 p.m. Joshua Gage - A Speculative Haiku Presentation and Exercise
We will start with a presentation on scifaiku and it’s various iterations across speculative genres. We’ll explore the differences between scifaiku and traditional English Language Haiku as well as how the craft tools of ELH work to create a strong speculative haiku. We’ll then walk through a few exercises to practice writing speculative haiku.
Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. His newest chapbook, blips on a screen, is available on Cuttlefish Books. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, Ethiopian coffee, and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs.
Moderator Celia Powles
Sunday, June 5, 2022. (U.S. East Coast Times)
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Opening Statements - HSA President Jay Friedenberg
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
11:00 a.m. - 11:50 a.m Crystal Simone Smith - Achieving Ekphrastic Haiku
The traditional haiku structure of sensory elements and imagery offers an ideal way to respond to visual art forms like paintings and photographs, also known as ekphrastic poetry form. Intrinsically, the “haiku moment” is not evoked by nature, but by the work encountered. To create successful ekphrastic haiku, we will look at various, common approaches to the practice. Many ekphrastic poems are meditations on time or subject matter, close interpretations of the work, or a homage to the work, with the goal forming a verse interpretation of the art that resonates.
Crystal Simone Smith is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Routes Home, Finishing Line Press (2013) and Running Music, Longleaf Press (2014). She is also the author of Wildflowers: Haiku, Senryu, and Haibun (2016). Her work has appeared in numerous journals including: Callaloo, Nimrod, Barrow Street, Obsidian II: Literature in the African Diaspora, African American Review, and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change. She is an alumna of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and the Yale Summer Writers Conference. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and lives in Durham, NC with her husband and two sons where she teaches English Composition and Creative Writing. She is the Managing Editor of Backbone Press.
Moderator Ce Rosenow
12:00 p.m. - 12:50. p.m. Caroline Skanne - How to Evaluate Our Own Haiku?
This presentation will explore approaches to evaluating your own haiku. A few key concepts underpinning English-language haiku, such as the images, the use of space, different techniques, subject matter & aesthetic principles; will be explored in relation to reading, writing & thinking about haiku. Emphasis will be placed on the personal journey, voice & authenticity. It will finish with a Q&A session.
Caroline Skanne is the editor of hedgerow (www.hedgerowhaiku.com) & Blithe Spirit (the Journal of the British Haiku Society). Born in Stockholm, Sweden, she now lives with her family by the River Medway, in Upnor, UK. (More info & samples of her work at www.carolineskanne.com).
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
1:00 p.m. -1:50 p.m. Terri French - Poetry in Motion
For the last two and a half years my husband and I have been traveling the US in our RV dubbed Poetry in Motion/ We called these travels Arr Arr V Adventures. I took many photos documenting our journey and wrote many poems inspired by the beautiful sights and tremendous experiences we had. This keynote presentation consists of twenty-five slides with haiku and haibun. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.
Terri currently serves on the board of The Haiku Foundation. She is also on the editorial team of the online journal, contemporary haibun online. Terri is past southeast regional coordinator of The Haiku Society of America and is former editor of Prune Juice Journal of senryu and kyoka.
Moderator Michael Henry Lee
2:00 p.m. - 2:50 p.m. Lunch Break - Take a Breather and Come Back!
3:00 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. Agnes Eva Savich - Mining Your Past: Haiku from Childhood, Homeland, and Previous Writings
Childhood, cultural roots, early writings can all feed our modern haiku practice, when we delve into our own archives: old photographs, family history, and journals. Through the lens of my own childhood in Poland, cultural family traditions, and some early writings, I will show how one’s own history and unique cultural memories act as source material for your current writing. Examples from other writers will support these concepts, as well as writing exercises in which you consider your own archives in these three areas for inspiration.
Agnes Eva Savich is a university program coordinator, oboist, and widely-published haiku poet since 2004. Among her other activities, she founded (2019) and still leads the Austin Texas Haiku Group; served as judge of The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards (2022) and the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Contest (2020); edited A Charm of Finches: The Haiku Society of America Southwest Region 2021 members’ anthology; and prepared the Memorial Presentation for Haiku North America 2021. Savich has resided in Poland, France, and Chicago, and currently lives in Pflugerville, near Austin, Texas.
Moderator Jim Ellis
4:00 p.m. - 4:50 p.m. Jay Friedenberg and Colleen Farrelly - A Computational Linguistics Approach to Understanding Haiku
Haiku have been studied qualitatively for decades but there are few statistical approaches to understanding its properties. In this presentation we have analyzed the winning poems from all of the HSA contests since inception and compared them to a representative and random sample of haiku and senryu from every published issue of Frogpond, the society’s journal. We note the similarities and differences between exceptional and “average” haiku in terms of word type and syntactical usage.
Jay Friedenberg is President of the Haiku Society of America and served for two years as Associate Editor of the organization’s journal Frogpond. He is a member of the Spring Street Haiku Group that meets monthly in New York City. Jay has had his poetry accepted in numerous U.S. and international journals and has published several book collections of his work. He has won multiple U.S. and International haiku contests.
Colleen M. Farrelly is a machine learning scientist who has been writing haiku and haibun for a few years, as well as other forms of poetry for years before coming across haiku/haibun. Her areas of research include natural language processing and topological data analysis.
Moderator Antoinette Cheung
5:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. Haiku Social Hour. Come and Schmooze with your Friends or Make New Ones!
Moderator Jacob Blumner
6:00 p.m. - 6:50 p.m. Chuck Brickley and Christopher Herold - RINGS: A Reverberation of Haibun
Chris and Chuck have been bouncing haiku, stories, and revelations off each other for years. Out of their kinship grew the idea of a tag-team haibun reading, which they first performed at the Haiku Canada Weekend conference in Vancouver, 2019. Chris read the prose of his haibun, Chuck, the haiku; then, vice versa, Chuck read the prose of his haibun, Chris, the haiku. They will reprise this collaboration with a (mostly) new set of haibun, and with a few added elements inspired by the video platform.
Chuck Brickley is the author of EARTHSHINE, a multi-award winning collection of haiku (in its fourth printing). One of his haibun was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, another for the Sonders Small Fiction Award. Chuck is currently the 2nd Vice President of HSA.
Christopher Herold’s haikai have been honored world-wide. Most recently his work was featured, along with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, William Dietrich, and renowned wood-engraver Richard Wagener, in the fine-press book, Cascadia, published by Nawakum Press (winner of the Carl Herzog Award of Excellence). Christopher is the co-founder of The Heron’s Nest haiku journal.
Moderator Roger Jones
7:00 p.m. - 7:10 p.m. Closing Remarks - HSA President
Moderator: Ignatius Fay
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Technical Moderator: Ignatius Fay will be participating the entire day and available as a backup host throughout the conference. Email at hsabulletin@gmail.com if you need to be admitted from the waiting room or are having technical difficulties.
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