Jim Kacian

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Jim Kacian in Kumamoto, Japan, in mid-September 2007, while reading his haiku for a film in development by Slovenian filmmaker Dimitar Anakiev. Jim-Kacian-2007-Sept.jpg
Jim Kacian in Kumamoto, Japan, in mid-September 2007, while reading his haiku for a film in development by Slovenian filmmaker Dimitar Anakiev.

James Michael Kacian (born July 26, 1953) [1] 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). [2]

Contents

Early life and career

James Michael Kacian was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was later adopted and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts. He wrote his first mainstream poems in his teens, and published them in small poetry magazines beginning in 1970. He also wrote, recorded, and sold songs under the name Jim Blake while living in Nashville in the 1980s. Upon his move to Virginia in 1985 he discovered English-language haiku, for which he is best known.

He set himself the task of writing a thousand such poems before seeking publication, and between 1985 and 1987 accomplished this.[ citation needed ] Since 1988 he has published thousands of his poems in hundreds of locations in dozens of languages, with the preponderance of them being published in the United States, but with substantial numbers also appearing in Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Italy, Austria, Israel, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Macedonia, Greece, Iran, Russia, China, India, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

From 1993 – 1998 he edited the haiku journal, [3] which he followed (1998 – 2004) by assuming the editorship of Frogpond , the membership journal of the Haiku Society of America.

Also in 1993, Kacian founded Red Moon Press, which has become the premier dedicated haiku publishing house in the world. [4]

Since 1996, Kacian has published more than 20 books, primarily haiku, and his work has been translated into more than 20 languages. His poems have won or been placed in virtually every international contest in the genre.[ citation needed ] All of his full-length collections have won awards.

Having proposed a new global haiku association in 1999, Kacian co-founded the World Haiku Association with Ban'ya Natsuishi and Dimitar Anakiev. [5] In September 2000 the WHA held its inaugural conference in Tolmin, Slovenia. [6]

From August to November 2000, Kacian traveled to nine countries — the UK, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan promoting a global haiku. [7] [8] Having invited haiku poets from around the world to submit their haiku to Frogpond, Kacian compiled and edited 2001's XXIV:1 issue, featuring haiku from 24 countries.

Beginning in 2004, Kacian began work on The Haiku Foundation. Among its offerings are The Haiku Foundation Libraries (hard copy and digital); Haikupedia, the online encyclopedia of all things haiku; interactive features for any level of participant; a history of world haiku, with specimen samples, in original languages and English; and more.

In August 2013, his anthology Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years was published by W. W. Norton & Company. The anthology tells the story of English-language haiku from its inception to the present, and includes his 70-page overview of the genre.

Also in 2013, Kacian created the first video haiga and haiku film. He first presented them publicly via The Haiku Foundation website, and then collectively at the HaikuLife Haiku Film Festival which he inaugurated in 2015.

Poetry collections

Kacian has written sixteen books of poetry, fourteen of which are dedicated to haiku or haiku-related genres. His poems have been translated into many languages.

Kacian's haiku,

clouds seen
through clouds
seen through

(along with 29 other chosen haiku) is etched in a stone along the Katikati Haiku Pathway beside the Uretara Stream in New Zealand. [9] (Poems were selected by the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee, New Zealand Poetry Society, and Catherine Mair.) In 2010 a second stone featuring his poem

a breeze and my mind on to other things

was added, making him one of only three poets with multiple stones, and the only American.[ citation needed ]

His essays have been cited in such works as:

Kacian's efforts on behalf of global haiku have been featured in Global Haiku and the work of Jim Kacian (Richard Gilbert, 2003).

Kacian's work has been anthologized in, among others:

His poem,

my fingerprints
on the dragonfly
in amber

serves as the departure point for Richard Gilbert's monograph on contemporary haiku technique, The Disjunctive Dragonfly, defining innovative techniques in English-language haiku. [10]

Editorship

Kacian has edited several English-language haiku books and journals, including:

Awards

As a poet

Kacian's haiku have won or placed in many national and international haiku competitions in English (and occasionally other languages as well), including recently:

Individual collection awards

The books listed below have won The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for outstanding achievement in the genre.

As a publisher

In 1996 his production of John Elsberg's A Week in the Lake District was a finalist for Virginia Poetry Book of the Year (Virginia State Library).

In August 2000, Knots — The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry (1999), which Kacian co-edited with Dimitar Anakiev, won second place in the World Haiku Achievement Competition. [8]

In October 2008 he won the Ginyu Award for Outstanding Contribution to World Haiku (Ginyu issue 40, pp. 13–15). [16]

Publication credits

Kacian's poems, articles, and book reviews have appeared internationally in journals, magazines, and newspapers including:

Speeches

Kacian has read in many parts of the world, including international poetry festivals in New York, New Orleans, London, Oxford, Belgrade, Vilanice, Ohrid, Skopje, Sofia, Sydney, Hobart, Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Tokyo, Tenri, Kyoto, Kumamoto, Los Angeles, Toronto and Washington D.C. Some of his speeches are listed below:

Essays

Theorist

His advocacy, along with that of such poets as Marlene Mountain and Janice Bostok, of single-line haiku in English has initiated renewed interest in this form following its rare usage during the 20th century. His work also champions several innovative techniques (as cited by Richard Gilbert in The Disjunctive Dragonfly and in his book Poems of Consciousness). Kacian's own critical writings elaborate some of these aesthetic innovations.

Interviews

Electronic media

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ↑ "Home". Red Moon Press. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  2. ↑ "The Haiku Foundation".
  3. ↑ "Pub. information, South by Southeast". Archived from the original on 2017-12-21. Retrieved 2008-12-27.
  4. ↑ Breen, N. & Lyman, L. 2004 Poet's Market: 1800+ Places to Publish Your Poetry, F & W Publications, 2003, ISBN   1582971870, p. 314.
  5. ↑ Who We Are on the WHA website
  6. ↑ WHA Articles of Association on the WHA website
  7. ↑ Gilbert, Richard. Global Haiku and the Work of Jim Kacian at http://kacian.gendaihaiku.com
  8. 1 2 Trumbull, Charles. "The American Haiku Movement Part II: American Haiku, The Internet And World Haiku", in Modern Haiku, Spring 2006.
  9. ↑ Interview with Catherine Mair about The Haiku Pathway in Simply Haiku v3n2 Summer 2005
  10. ↑ Gilbert, Richard. The Disjunctive Dragonfly: A Study of Disjunctive Method and Definitions in Contemporary English‑language Haiku on gendaihaiku.com
  11. ↑ Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards 2011 Archived 2012-03-25 at the Wayback Machine at The International Academic Forum
  12. ↑ Risultati del Premio Poesia Haiku: AUTORI PREMIATI AL CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE HAIKU EDIZIONE 2007 by Cascina Macondo
  13. ↑ f/k/a’s 2007 ito en oi ocha winners
  14. ↑ Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award Collection Archived 2012-06-04 at the Wayback Machine on the HSA website
  15. ↑ Haiku Canada
  16. ↑ "Ginyu International Haiku Quarterly". Archived from the original on 2008-04-04. Retrieved 2008-12-26.

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