Formation | 1968 |
---|---|
Type | Poetry society |
Location | |
Membership | Haiku poets and enthusiasts from any part of the world |
Official language | English |
President | Jay Friedenberg |
Website | www |
The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicated to haiku and related forms of poetry outside Japan, [1] and holds meetings, lectures, workshops, readings, and contests, throughout the United States. The society's journal, Frogpond , first published in 1978, appears three times a year. As of 2022, the HSA has over 1,000 members. [2]
The HSA web site includes information on how to get involved with its regional chapters, as well as information on contests, society meetings, and publications including Frogpond . [3] The society also publishes a monthly email newsletter with news on regional, national, and international haiku events. [2] The Haiku Society of America is well known for its annual contests for haiku, senryū, haibun, renku, and renga, as well as the Merit Book Awards for the best haiku books published each year. [2]
The Haiku Society of America was founded in 1968 by Harold G. Henderson and Leroy Kanterman in New York City, and was the first formal organization dedicated to haiku outside of Japan. [4] Twenty-one charter members attended its first meeting. [2] Bringing together poets study, discuss, and write haiku, [4] the organization's stated goals were to:
Early members included Nicholas A. Virgilio, Elizabeth Searle Lamb, L.A. Davidson, Virginia Brady Young, Alan Pizzarelli, and Anita Virgil. [5] American poet Cor van den Heuvel first attended a meeting in 1971. [5] Annual readings and lectures featured translators such as Cid Corman, Donald Keene, and Hiroaki Sato, as well as speakers from Japan including scholar Kenkichi Yamamoto, and haiku poet Sumio Mori. [5] For a period, the official magazine of the society was called Haiku West, and was edited by Leroy Kanterman. [5]
In the early 1970s, the Haiku Society of America formed a committee to agree on a definition of haiku, which they submitted to the publishers of several English dictionaries, [6] and became the first widely accepted definition, [4] which has continued to be revised over the years. [7] In 1975, HSA held sessions focusing on renga, and published the 36-verse kasen format in its newsletter. [6] By 1989, the society had a few hundred members located throughout North America, Europe, and Japan, and was publishing a quarterly magazine, with no paid staff. [5]
In 1994, the society produced A Haiku Path, an important work documenting the history of Western haiku. [4] Frogpond was one of the two most prominent haiku journals, along with Modern Haiku, and many poets were published in both. [4]
In 1996 and 1997, the Haiku Society of America and the Haiku International Association held reciprocal conferences in Chicago and Tokyo. [4] By 1997, HSA membership had grown to 700, having more than doubled in the space of 12 years. [8]
In 2014, it published Take-Out Window, an anthology of 291 poems written by members. [9]
From 1979 to 1981, Hiroaki Sato, a translator of Japanese poetry into English, served as president of the Haiku Society of America. [6] Other past presidents have included poet, historian, and editor Elizabeth Searle Lamb; [10] poet Cor van den Heuvel; [11] poet Lee Gurga, a translator of contemporary Japanese poets and editor of Modern Haiku; and John Stevenson, who was also an editor of Frogpond . [4]
Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 phonetic units in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a kireji, or "cutting word"; and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified as senryū.
Senryū (川柳) is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 morae. Senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious.
George Swede, is a Latvian Canadian psychologist, poet and children's writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is a major figure in English-language haiku, known for his wry, poignant observations
Renga is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry in which alternating stanzas, or ku (句), of 5-7-5 and 7-7 mora per line are linked in succession by multiple poets. Known as tsukuba no michi after the famous Tsukuba Mountain in the Kantō region, the form of poetry is said to have originated in a two-verse poetry exchange by Yamato Takeru and later gave birth to the genres haikai (俳諧) and haiku (俳句).
Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in the Chinese language or ryūka from the Okinawa Islands: it is possible to make a more accurate distinction between Japanese poetry written in Japan or by Japanese people in other languages versus that written in the Japanese language by speaking of Japanese-language poetry. Much of the literary record of Japanese poetry begins when Japanese poets encountered Chinese poetry during the Tang dynasty. Under the influence of the Chinese poets of this era Japanese began to compose poetry in Chinese kanshi); and, as part of this tradition, poetry in Japan tended to be intimately associated with pictorial painting, partly because of the influence of Chinese arts, and the tradition of the use of ink and brush for both writing and drawing. It took several hundred years to digest the foreign impact and make it an integral part of Japanese culture and to merge this kanshi poetry into a Japanese language literary tradition, and then later to develop the diversity of unique poetic forms of native poetry, such as waka, haikai, and other more Japanese poetic specialties. For example, in the Tale of Genji both kanshi and waka are frequently mentioned. The history of Japanese poetry goes from an early semi-historical/mythological phase, through the early Old Japanese literature inclusions, just before the Nara period, the Nara period itself, the Heian period, the Kamakura period, and so on, up through the poetically important Edo period and modern times; however, the history of poetry often is different from socio-political history.
Haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of haibun is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal.
Renku, or haikai no renga, is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ushin renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns providing alternating verses of 17 and 14 morae. Initially haikai no renga distinguished itself through vulgarity and coarseness of wit, before growing into a legitimate artistic tradition, and eventually giving birth to the haiku form of Japanese poetry. The term renku gained currency after 1904, when Kyoshi Takahama started to use it.
Hokku is the opening stanza of a Japanese orthodox collaborative linked poem, renga, or of its later derivative, renku. From the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku began to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun. In the late 19th century, Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902) renamed the standalone hokku as "haiku", and the latter term is now generally applied retrospectively to all hokku appearing independently of renku or renga, irrespective of when they were written. The term hokku continues to be used in its original sense, as the opening verse of a linked poem.
Bruce Ross is a Canadian American poet, author, philosopher, humanities educator and past president of the Haiku Society of America. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario.
Haikai may refer in both Japanese and English to haikai no renga (renku), a popular genre of Japanese linked verse, which developed in the sixteenth century out of the earlier aristocratic renga. It meant "vulgar" or "earthy", and often derived its effect from satire and puns, though "under the influence of [Matsuo] Bashō (1644–1694) the tone of haikai no renga became more serious". "Haikai" may also refer to other poetic forms that embrace the haikai aesthetic, including haiku and senryū, haiga, and haibun. However, haikai does not include orthodox renga or waka.
Cor Van den Heuvel is an American haiku poet, editor and archivist.
A haiku in English is an English-language poem written in a form or style inspired by Japanese haiku. Like their Japanese counterpart, haiku in English are typically short poems and often reference the seasons, but the degree to which haiku in English implement specific elements of Japanese haiku, such as the arranging of 17 phonetic units in a 5–7–5 pattern, varies greatly.
William J. Higginson was an American poet, translator and author most notable for his work with haiku and renku, born in New York City. He was one of the charter members of the Haiku Society of America, and was present at its formation meeting in 1968.
James Michael Kacian is an American haiku poet, editor, translator, publisher, organizer, filmmaker, public speaker, and theorist. He has authored more than 20 volumes of English-language haiku, and edited scores more, including serving as editor in chief for Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. In addition, he is founder and owner of Red Moon Press (1993), a co-founder of the World Haiku Association (2000), and founder and president of The Haiku Foundation (2009).
Alan Pizzarelli is an American poet, songwriter, and musician. He was born of an Italian-American family in Newark, New Jersey, and raised in the first ward’s Little Italy. He is a major figure in English-language haiku and Senryū.
Hiroaki Sato is a Japanese poet and prolific translator who writes frequently for The Japan Times. He has been called "perhaps the finest translator of contemporary Japanese poetry into American English". Sato received the Japan–U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature in 1999 for his translation of Breeze Through Bamboo by Ema Saikō and in 2017 for The Silver Spoon: Memoir of a Boyhood in Japan by Kansuke Naka.
Sarumino is a 1691 anthology, considered the magnum opus of Bashō-school poetry. It contains four kasen renku as well as some 400 hokku, collected by Nozawa Bonchō and Mukai Kyorai under the supervision of Matsuo Bashō. Sarumino is one of the Seven Major Anthologies of Bashō, and, together with the 1690 anthology, Hisago, it is considered to display Bashō's mature style (Shōfū) at its peak. Bashō's influence on all four of the kasen in Sarumino was profound and when he sat with Bonchō, Okada Yasui and Kyorai at Yoshinaka Temple to write "Kirigirisu", he extolled them, "Let's squeeze the juice from our bones."
Frogpond is a haiku magazine published by the Haiku Society of America. It is published eletronically three times per year and consists of English-language haiku and senryu, linked forms including sequences, renku, rengay, and haibun, essays and articles on these forms, and book reviews. Submissions may come from members and nonmembers. The first issue was published in February 1978.
Alexis K. Rotella is an American poet and artist. She has written poems in several of the traditional styles of Japanese poetry, including haiku, senryū, renga, and haibun.
Dee Evetts is an English haiku poet and writer.