HAIKU NORTH AMERICA

Garry Gay founded the Haiku North America conference in 1991. He was born in Glendale, California, 1951 and received his B.P.A. degree in photography in 1974. He has been a photographer by profession for the past 33 years. He started writing haiku in 1975. Greatly influenced by Basho's Narrow Road To The Deep North, he has steadily written haiku over the past 30 years. He is one of the co-founders of the Haiku Poets of Northern California. He became their first president from 1989-90 and in 2001-2007 again served as president. As president in 1989 he founded the Two Autumns reading series. In 1991 he was elected as president of the Haiku Society of America. In 1996 he also co-founded the American Haiku Archives in Sacramento, California. He is the creator of the poetic form called rengay. He is the author of The Billboard Cowboy, The Silent Garden, Wings of Moonlight, River Stones and Along The Way. He currently lives in the California wine country in a small town called Windsor with his wife Melinda and daughter Alissa.

Paul Miller is the Treasurer for Haiku North America. Paul's poetry and essays have been published internationally. His first book Finding the Way won the 2003 Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Award. His most recent collection called home is available from Red Moon Press. He is the Controller of a national brokerage, and Treasurer of the Haiku Society of America and Haiku Poets of Northern California.

Michael Dylan Welch helped to found the Haiku North America conference in 1991. He edited the journal Woodnotes from 1989 to 1997, and is currently editor/publisher of Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem and of Press Here haiku and tanka books. He co-founded the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in 1996, and founded the Tanka Society of America in 2000. He is also a board member of the Washington Poets Association. His haiku, tanka, and longer poetry has been published in hundreds of journals and anthologies in more than a dozen languages, and he has won first prize in each of the Henderson, Brady, Drevniok, and Tokutomi contests, among others. Michael lives near Seattle with his wife and two children in Sammamish, Washington. His personal website is called Graceguts.

HNA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation based in California, led by the following three directors. In addition, a local organizing team takes on the responsibility for running each conference.