 Photo courtesy Michael Dylan Welch I am pleased to introduce Penny Harter to you for our most recent Blog Interview!
Penny Harter is co-author, of The Haiku Handbook---published in a 25th anniversary edition in 2010. She is also a past-president of the HSA (1986). Her free-verse poems, haiku, tanka, and haibun appear in numerous journals and anthologies, both in print and on-line, and among her twenty-one books and chapbooks of poems, six feature haiku. Her most recent chapbook is Recycling Starlight (2010), a cycle of free-verse and formal poems, haiku, haibun, and tanka, charting her passage through grief after the death of her husband, Bill Higginson.
Some of journals and anthologies featuring her work include Haiku Moment (1993); Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (1998); Global Haiku (2000); The Unswept Path (2005); Modern Haibun and Tanka Prose (2009); and Contemporary Haibun: Volume 12 (2011). Her exercise for poets, "Circling the Pine: Haibun and the Spiral Web" appears in Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry (2011).
Other recent books include The Night Marsh (2008), Along River Road (2005), and Buried in the Sky (2002), and her children’s alphabestiary, The Beastie Book , (2009). A Dodge Foundation poet, Harter read at the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival. She has received three poetry fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Mary Carolyn Davies Award from the Poetry Society of America, the William O. Douglas Nature Writing Award, and a fellowship from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for a residency during January, 2011. She lives in the southern New Jersey shore area and works as a poet in the schools.
How long have you been involved in haiku poetry (or your special focus of haiku) and what got you started?
Well, I thought I really wasn't that aware of haiku until I met Bill in 1974 and began attending meetings of the Haiku Society of America in NYC. But in preparing for the panel I'll be on: "Who Wrote That? How My Haiku Has Changed Over Three Decades," with Jerry Ball, Garry Gay, and chaired by Margaret Chula, I went back to old notebooks and found I'd written a haiku---counting 5-7-5 of course---in 1971. I had been writing free-verse poetry since the mid-1960s, but only began to write more haiku from about 1975 on. For me, writing poetry is one continuum---all related. I do know that fairly early on, writing haiku, especially becoming more and more aware of juxtaposition---the delight of that "leap" or turn---somewhat influenced the economy of language and occasional turns or leaps at the ends of my free verse poems. Then, with Bill, I became fascinated with the renku process and participated in, as well as helped lead renku sessions. And recently I've been writing quite a few more haibun---loving the genre and enjoying the interplay between poetic prose and verse--- and again, delighting in that renku-like haiku leap when one varies the texture by adding the haiku.
Have you ever been to HNA before?
I have been to every HNA except the very first. That first one was the year Bill and I moved to Santa Fe (1991) and I had to attend orientation for my then new teaching job at Santa Fe Preparatory School. We lived in Santa Fe between 1991 and 2002. The last HNA Bill and I attended together was in 2007 in Winston-Salem. HNA in Ottawa in 2009 was the first conference I went to by myself, and a real turning point for me---finding closure with so many in the community who loved and respected Bill, and finding myself---dancing and laughing on the riverboat tour on the Ottawa River.
Have you ever been to Seattle?
Only briefly. I flew into SeaTac in 2009 when I attended the Seabeck Haiku Getaway, and stayed overnight in Seattle with Tanya McDonald. And thanks to Michael Dylan Welch, I saw some great bookstores and read at SoulFood books in Redmond that night. Early the next morning we went on up to Seabeck.
Seabeck is so fun, I went for the first time last year. What are you most looking
forward to at this year's HNA?
Many things. Most of all, reconnecting with so many dear haiku friends that I've met over the years. And, of course, being on Maggie's panel, leading a haibun workshop, and participating in the Conference Anthology, Haibun and "The Poetry Continuum: Anything but Haiku" readings. There are also a number of exciting presentations I'm already planning to attend. I always come away from HNA having had a wonderful time and inspired to do new writing. Can't wait to see everyone!
It is going to be great meeting you! Thank you so much, I feel like I know you so well, I can't wait to meet you.
 We are getting ever-closer to the Haiku North America Conference. I blog interviewed Eve Luckring to find out about her workshop.
"I will be screening a series of short videos based on the Junicho Renku form and also presenting a workshop, Video Renku: Link and Shift in Visual Language, which will discuss how the Russian film maker and theorist, Sergei Eisenstein, was inspired by Japanese poetry in the development of his "montage" methods of film editing. We will look at these techniques in relationship to the ideas of "link and shift" in renku, and participants will experiment with the "translation" of visual language into writing. It should be lots of fun!"
Wow, your experience of being a visual artist will make this workshop unique. Here is Ms. Luckring's bio...
Eve Luckring has exhibited internationally in both traditional gallery settings and site-specific public spaces. Her poetry has been published in many journals and several anthologies; most recently, in a spotlight feature of Modern Haiku, Summer 2010, and A New Resonance 6: Emerging Voices in English Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, 2009. She lives in Los Angeles, California. www.eveluckring.com
How long have you been involved in haiku poetry (or your special focus of haiku) and what got you started?
That's a long and winding river. I played a bit in the shallows in the early 80's. I found myself about knee deep somewhere in the mid-90's and by the turn of the 21rst century, I was swallowed whole.
Ah, I have to say, I am in the shallows myself. This is my first HNA, have you ever been to HNA before?
Yes, I went to Ottawa in 2009. It was a wonderful experience.
How about traveling to Seattle?
Yes, a couple times, but always for very brief visits.
The Henry Art Gallery (at the University of Washington) is terrific! I think they have a small exhibit up now about independent publishing as well as one about photography in the digital age.
Here is a link to the latest happenings at the Henry Art Gallery: exhibitions and information on how to visit. Thank you for offering a GREAT suggestion! What are you most looking forward to at this year's HNA?
Everything!
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 It's getting ever closer to the Haiku North America Conference, and I'm still meeting speakers and panelists via email, and blogging interviews! Today we meet Gene Myers.Gene's weekly newspaper column, The Joy of Life, has a circulation of more than 2 million. He is an entertainment journalist who was awarded first place in Arts and Entertainment writing by the New Jersey Press Association. His articles have appeared in over 40 newspapers.
His poetry publishing credits include: Double Room, a broadside by Joshua Beckman's 811 Books, Tiferet Journal, Frogpond Journal, Word Salad, The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Anthology, Beyond the Rift: Poets of the Palisades, Disco Prairie Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Paper Wasp, Chrysanthemum, A Handful of Stones, Prune Juice Journal of Senryu & Kyoka and the Irish Haiku Society's Shamrock Haiku Journal.
Articles and poems can be found at genemyers.com.
How long have you been interested in haiku poetry and what got you started?
I have always been interested in writing brief poems that attempt to document the wonder of the world around us, especially when done in a way that bypasses our typical way of thinking. But a poetic form that does that using clear language and everyday happenstance? I was hooked thanks to people like Cor van den Heuvel, Gary Hotham, Al Pizzarelli, Donna Beaver, Nick Virgilio and Michael Dylan Welch. They showed me how good haiku can be, and then I went back and read the masters. But first and foremost, it was Cor's anthology that opened the world up to me. It was already in its third edition when I found it.
Have you ever been to a Haiku North America Conference? Nope, never...I can't wait to see how many people go and I'm looking forward to meeting them. The haiku community has really welcomed me. While the larger poetry world can be extremely political and has a competitive feel to it, it seems like the haiku world doesn't. I think it's because the art form fosters the kind of maturity that comes from focusing on selflessness and spirituality.
What are you most looking forward to at this year's HNA?
I've had a real hard time tracking down books by haiku and senryu poets that I like...so hopefully, I'll be traveling home with a backpack full of books, but also, again, I really want to meet these people who have been so nice and encouraging in emails and on Facebook. I also hope the Bookfair is a hit! It's great to meet you, Gene Myers, and we'll see you soon in Seattle!
 Ricard Tice, a member of Haiku Northwest, will be speaking at HNA this year! His topic is entitled, "Location, Location, Location: Place in Haiku."
Let's hear what he has to say as I do a blog interview with him...
How long have you been involved in haiku poetry and what got you started?
I started writing haiku seriously in 1977 during my second stay in Japan. Oddly enough, I never encountered haiku during my first stay of two years on Japan, but I was introduced to it later in a Japanese civilization course in 1975. This introduction soon developed into a primary area of study for me, although in my field of comparative literature I also took courses in all types of Japanese literature. In 1978 Bonsai, Modern Haiku, and Dragonfly began publishing some of my work. Then the Haiku Museum of Tokyo asked me to translate a short collection of contemporary Japanese haiku, which they published in 1979, and I started writing quite a few articles on haiku for Modern Haiku, Frogpond, and Cicada. I took over Dragonfly from Lorraine Ellis Harr in 1985 and published fifteen issues before giving it up in. My Japanese editor, Jack Terahata, and I translated a lot of contemporary Japanese haiku for that magazine to go along with the English-language haiku. My first haiku collection, Station Stop, was published in 1986 and won second place in the HSA biennial book award contest (back then the awards were given every two years). After Dragonfly ceased publication, I stopped writing for many years, except for an occasional haiku now and then. When I returned to graduate school at SFSU in 2003, I again got immersed in Japanese literature, particularly linked verse, and started writing haiku more, along with some linked verse. Michael Welch got me out of my shell by inviting me by e-mail to a haiku reading in the Bay Area. By coincidence, I had just moved to the Puget Sound, where he had moved earlier, and he got me involved in haiku activities in this area. I finally got to meet many haiku poets and scholars I had only known by name. My second collection of haiku (and linked verse), Familiar and Foreign, was published in 2008. It's received several complimentary reviews and absolutely no fanfare.
Have you ever been to HNA before?
This conference will be my first HNA conference. It's got a great line up, including Jim Kacian's presentation on the history of one-line haiku in English, which he's giving at the same time as my presentation. My lecture is titled "Location, Location, Location: Place in Haiku." Other aspects of haiku--kigo, syllable count, caesuras, lineation, imagery, for example--have gotten far more attention and have been hotly debated, but place may be more critical or basic to haiku than those. Can you imagine a haiku not linked to a place in some way? I did find one in the most recent issue of Modern Haiku. I'll review the rule of incorporating place in hokku in linked verse sessions and look at the two most common ways place is used: as a generic location for haiku and as a fixed, specific location. Then I'll examine haiku that use place names, a practice that is common enough in Japanese haiku but much less common in English. Finally I'll cover a fourth category of haiku that are "tagged" in some way--the place is indicated outside of the haiku, almost like adding a line to the poem. This is fairly rare in English haiku, but fairly visible in Japanese haiku.
You said you moved to this area some time ago. How do like it?
I moved to Maple Valley in 2008 and then to Kent last year. Both are southeast of Seattle. I think the Puget Sound is stunningly beautiful, and Seattle is a natural for a haiku convention. I've been to Seattle many times in the past, including taking a class at the University of Washington when I lived in Olympia and staying in Seattle for several months before moving to Japan. There are so many interesting places to see, and the city, despite its share of skyscrapers, has never lost its connection to the sea, the forests, and the mountains.
What are you looking forward to at this year's HNA?
I'm excited to finally meet many whose names and work I've been familiar with for years. I'm looking forward to haiku immersion!
I am excited too! Thanks for sharing, and I'll see you soon!
photo credit: Michael Dylan Welch
 A special part of Haiku North America is a remembrance of those haiku poets who have passed away in the last two years. Marjorie Buettner will be presenting a memorial reading to honor them.
Marjorie, from where are you traveling to Seattle?I live in Chisago City, MN about 35 miles north of Minneapolis. How long have you been interested in haiku?I have been writing poetry all of my life but in 1995 I started concentrating on haiku and tanka. I love writing haibun and sijo as well and have started experimenting with photo haiga. I have one book of haiku and tanka out: Seeing It Now published by a wonderful press here in Minnesota: Red Dragonfly Press. Hopefully you can bring Seeing It Now to our Bookfair! Have you ever been to Haiku North America?I have never been in Seattle before nor HNA so it will be a dream come true!Thank you for honoring the lives of those who are no longer able to celebrate with us at our HNA conference. May we celebrate their lives and continue to be inspired by their poetry!
 I've been having a great time getting to know out HNA Speakers and Panelists! This is my first Haiku North America conference, and I am getting gitty with each person who responds to my email inquiries about their talks. Here I blog interviewed (blogerviewed?) Carlos Colón.
Carlos Colón is the author of 12 chapbooks including Mountain Climbing and Clocking Out, two collections of haiku and concrete poetry; Sassy, a collection of linked poems written with Alexis Rotella, and Circling Bats and Wall Street Park, two books of concrete renku written with Raffael de Gruttola. His work has appeared in a variety of publications including The Red Moon Anthology, Modern Haiku, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Writer’s Digest, and Louisiana Literature. His poetry has also been part of three public art projects: the “Let the Good Times Roll” mural in Shreveport’s Festival Plaza, "Highway Haiku," and a renku display outside of a temple on Sado Island in Japan. In addition, Colón edited Voices and Echoes, the 2001 Haiku Society of America Members' Anthology and was editor of Shreve Memorial Library=s Electronic Poetry Network from 1997 to 2011.
How long have you been interested in haiku poetry (or your special focus of haiku) and what got you started?
I was taught haiku in the 7th grade (5-7-5 of course) and dabbled a tiny bit in college, but I started writing them earnestly in 1990 when I was focused on getting my poetry published. I had written a number of concrete poems, including an internal-rhyme poem in the shape of a turkey, so I figured it would be easy to squeeze my thoughts into a 5-7-5 framework. It didn’t take long for me to appreciate the looser structure of contemporary English-Language haiku, though.
Have you ever been to HNA before?
Yes, I was invited to present at HNA 1997 in Portland. Within minutes of registering at the hotel, I had met Francine Porad, former HSA President, and George Swede, current Frogpond editor. The whole conference was exciting and invigorating, and I have been to every one since, except for the 2009 conference, which I could not attend because of illness.
Have you ever been to Seattle?
Just a short time when I was traveling through on the way to HNA in Port Townsend.
Port Townsend is wonderful! We're glad you're coming back to the Pacific Northwest. What are you most looking forward to at this year's HNA?
See all my friends from around the world and meeting new friends as well.
Are you presenting a program at the conference?
Yes, a program exploring the historical connection between concrete poetry and haiku. I will be examining the work of E.E. Cummings, bpNichol, Nick Avis, LeRoy Gorman, Marshall Hryciuk, Raffael de Gruttola, and Marlene Mountain as well as my own.
What are your favorite experiences at an HNA conference?
I have so many fond memories of HNA. Here are a few:
Performing an impromptu haiku/jazz duet with Johnette Downing
Staying up until 4:00 in the morning listening to an argument between Michael Welch and Al Pizzarelli about the necessity of incorporating absolute truth into haiku and senryu
Sharing a Black and Tan with Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton, Brian Tasker, (possibly) Dietmar Tauchner, and a few others
Having the opportunity to meet Bob Spiess and Jerry Kilbride
Thanks to Mr. Colón for participating in this blog interview! Check out his website! By Clicking Here
 If you have not had a chance to read Richard Gilbert's guest blog post on the HNA Website, be sure to check it out! He gives some great recommendations on coffee joints to visit here in Seattle. Click Here
Here I do a short interview with Richard Gilbert asking about his talk for Haiku North America...
Since I posted your guest blog about coffee houses on the page, I figure I've got to meet/introduce you now!
Thanks, why not? Here's my bio from the Haiku Foundation Website: Richard Gilbert entered Naropa University in 1981, where he studied with Beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Peter Orlovsky, and Gary Snyder. Japanese haiku became a focus, under the tutelage of Patricia Donegan. Richard completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Poetics and Expressive Arts in 1982, followed by a Master’s in Contemplative Psychology, 1986. He earned a Ph.D. in Poetics and Depth Psychology at the Union Institute and University, 1990. In 1997, he moved to Japan to pursue Japanese haiku research. He is currently Associate Professor, Department of British and American Language and Literature, at Kumamoto University. In 2006, Richard was awarded a two-year grant from MEXT (the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) for research on modern Japanese haiku. In March 2008 he published the book and dvd-rom, Poems of Consciousness: Contemporary Japanese & English-language Haiku in Cross-cultural Perspective (Red Moon Press, 306 pages). The dvd contains the gendaihaiku.com website, which presents subtitled flash-video interviews with notable gendai haiku poets.
So let's start with getting an idea of what you'll be talking about at HNA?
My presentation is titled "Social Consciousness and the Poet's Stance in 21st Century Haiku: From Kaneko Tohta to the Present."
What I'm hoping to share are ideas about postwar haiku society and haiku in contemporary society, drawing on the North American tradition via the thoughts, haiku, life and times of Kaneko Tohta, the celebrated pioneer of postwar "gendai" (contemporary) haiku in Japan. In Kumamoto, my home, our Kon Nichi Translation group is now just publishing "The Future of Haiku: An Interview with Kaneko Tohta" (Red Moon Press). This is volume two of a four-volume series on Kaneko. Our first volume, "Ikimonofûei: Poetic Composition on Living Things," is hot off the presses and available here.
Hopefully you can bring some copies to our Bookfair! Have you ever been to HNA before?
Yes, HNA 2007, Winston-Salem. I'm really looking forward to a reunion! I was quite gratefully to after many years meet and talk with Bill Higginson there. (I am only able to attend when I have funding to come from Japan, unfortunately.)
Have you ever been to Seattle?
Does 1975 count?
Yes that counts! Although you'll find it changed, of course! We are gearing up to celebrate 50 years since the Century 21 Exposition and construction of the Space Needle in 2012. Seattle Center is still a hub of activity, but the downtown and waterfront have changed for the better (or so I hear, I've only been here 10 years myself...)
What are you most looking forward to at this year's HNA?
Surprises. Brainstorming. The talks! And community. I do wish that more friends and colleagues from around the world were able to attend this singular international conference; nevertheless, a rare and special treat, every two years.
We echo your sentiments! Thank you so much for being part of this conference! We will see you in Seattle!
 Bruce Ross is a past president of the Haiku Society of America and editor of "Haiku Moment, An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku" and author of "How to Haiku, A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms." He is the founder and publisher of Tansho Press. It's first publication (2011) is "scent of pine, A Maine Haiku Anthology." He has written extensively on haiku and placed many of his haiku and related forms in the world haiku journals. He is an expert on world spirituality, as in his book "If Not Higher, Lectures on the Poetics of Spiritual Presence and Absence." He lives with his wife Astrid in rural Maine.
Can you tell us a little about what you will be talking about at Haiku North America this year?
I will be giving a talk at HNA Seattle 2011: "Spaciousness as a Key Element in Haiku." It will discuss the Japanese concepts of "ma" (expansive possibilities that surround objects) and "mu" (emptiness), Shunryu Suzuki's concept of big vs. little mind, and Shinto animism in an attempt to uncover the possibilty that a poetics of haiku should include the issue of spaciousness.
How long have you been interested in Haiku Poetry?
I have been interested in haiku poety from the late fifties when I read what the Beats were reading and writing, including Hakuin and Kerouac's"Dharma Bums." Haiku specifically was introduced to me at this time in the Pauper Press translations of Japanese haiku and the work of Paul Reps. I was writing nature poetry then also, so the transition to haiku writing was natural.
Have you been to Haiku North America before?
I have attended every HNA meeting except the very first one.
Have you ever been to Seattle?
I have visited Seattle several times before to see the sights and visit haiku friends.
What are you most looking forward to at Haiku North America?
I am looking forward to talking with haiku friends and listening to some of the other talks and panel discussions, perhaps attending a workshop.
I am looking forward to hearing from more panelists and speakers, and hope our short blog interviews are getting others excited for this amazing event! Thanks so much to Bruce Ross for giving us a teaser about his talk! See you in Seattle!
-Katharine
David G. Lanoue will be speaking at HNA Seattle this year. His talk, entitled "Issa´s Frogs and Toads" sounds like it will be one not to miss! Dr. David G. Lanoue is a professor of English at Xavier University of Louisiana. His Haiku of Kobayashi Issa website presents 10,000 haiku of Issa in English translation with comments. His books included Issa: Cup-of-Tea Poems, The Distant Mountain: The Life and Haiku of Kobayashi Issa, Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, and three "haiku novels": Haiku Guy, Laughing Buddha and Haiku Wars.
Issa´s treatment of frogs and toads in his haiku can seem, on the surface, merely comic. Images of a grown man conversing with amphibians can provoke laughter and help to explain, in part, Issa´s popularity among Japanese children. In this lecture followed by a discussion, we will explore a selection of these haiku in light of the Pure Land Buddhism that Issa followed. We will discover that, for the poet, frogs and toads are fellow travelers, companions, cousins and mirrors of humanity.
Here's some other comments David G. Lanoue told me over an email conversation...
How long have you been interested in Issa's haiku poetry?
In the early 1980s I discovered Issa's haiku in R.H. Blyth--and decided to learn Japanese to read his original texts. After that, I started translating his haiku to English (10,000 so far!).
Have you ever been to HNA before?
Yes! I attended the last two meetings in Winston-Salem and Ottawa. I'm hooked!
Have you ever been to Seattle?
Yes, briefly. But that was a lifetime ago. I'm eager to take a fresh look at it.
What are you most looking forward to at this year's HNA?
Hobnobbing with haiku pals--old pals and new ones that I hope to make!
Looking forward to hearing this talk!
-Katharine
Check out David G Lanoue's website too! http://haikuguy.com/aboutme.html
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