2022 Events
Haiku Northwest invites you to attend any of our free monthly meetings, which usually focus on rounds of sharing and workshopping our haiku, with occasional presentations and writing exercises. All meetings for 2022 are on Zoom except where noted (join our mailing list to receive each Zoom link). Listed here are all our meetings, a few special events, plus significant regional or national events. If you’re giving a haiku workshop or know of another haiku event in the area, please let us know so we can add it. Monthly meetings usually start at 6:30 p.m. with informal socializing, with a more formal start at 7:00 p.m., and occur on the second Thursday of each month, except as indicated. For 2022 we will also have quarterly meetings on selected weekends in place of that month’s Thursday meeting. All dates and details are subject to change, and will be confirmed via the Haiku Northwest Mailchimp mailing list (through which you may be provided additional details, such as Zoom links—if you have questions, please email haikunw1988@gmail.com). To suggest regional haiku-related events to add to the following schedule, please contact Michael Dylan Welch at WelchM@aol.com. We’ll update content as soon as we confirm the details. See you at our next event!
In addition to the following events, the Washington region of the Haiku Society of America will have an annual regional meeting on August 27, 2022.
2022 Meetings
All online via Zoom, unless specified otherwise, and all times Pacific Time.
January 8 (Saturday)
Quarterly Meeting, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Tanya McDonald, coordinator
12:50 p.m. — Zoom room opens
1:00 p.m. — Welcome and announcements (Tanya)
1:15 p.m. — Break-out rooms (introduce yourself and share a haiku)
1:30 p.m. — “Haiku in 2022—Opportunities and Resources”
(presentation and discussion, led by Tanya)
2:00 p.m. — Break
2:10 p.m. — “How Haibun Work” presentation by Lew Watts
2:55 p.m. — Break
3:00 p.m. — Anonymous Haiku Critique Session (poems submitted beforehand)
3:55 p.m. — Wrap-up
4:00 p.m. — End
February
National Haiku Writing Month
Visit the NaHaiWriMo website and Facebook page
Write at least one haiku per day for each day of February
February 10
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Sharing favorite haiku by others plus a round of haiku critique
March 10
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Critique session focusing on season words
April 8–10
Seattle Cherry Blossom and Japanese Cultural Festival
Seattle Center, Seattle, Washington (in person)
Haiku Northwest meeting at the Lake Forest Park Library, September 27, 2018. Left to right are Cara Izumi, Millie Renfrow, Ron Swanson, Curtis Manley, Arlene Springer, Philaah Jones, Terran Campbell, Tanya McDonald, Dianne Garcia, Gary Evans, and Angie Terry. Photo by Michael Dylan Welch. Please join us!
Haiku Northwest meeting at the Bellevue Regional Library, August 7, 2008. Left to right are Curtis Manley, Helen Russell, William Scott Galasso, Ida Freilinger, Bryson Nitta, Tanya McDonald, Connie Hutchison, Dejah Leger, Susan Miller, Terran Campbell, Joshua Beach, Angela Terry, Marilyn Sandall, and Herb McClees. Photo by Michael Dylan Welch. Please join us!
April 9 (Saturday)
Quarterly Meeting, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Tanya McDonald, coordinator
What to bring:
1–2 haiku or senryu to share aloud with the group. They can be your own (published or unpublished) or by someone else
1 haiku or senryu of your own (preferably unpublished) to use in a writing exercise with others
Your creativity and sense of fun
1:00 p.m. — Welcome and Breakout Room Socializing
Let’s spend a few minutes saying hello to old friends and meeting new ones. We’ll have two 10-minute breakout rooms to allow for socializing with different people. Please do give everyone a chance to talk and make everyone feel welcome.
1:30 p.m. — Haiku Read-Around
Introduce yourself and read 1–2 haiku aloud (please read them twice since audio can sometimes cut in and out on Zoom). The purpose of this activity is two-fold: to share/appreciate haiku and to get us in the mindset for writing.
2:00 p.m. — Exploring Tan-Renga Writing Workshop
Tan-renga are appearing with more frequency in haiku journals, but what are they? In this workshop, we’ll answer that question and read some examples of tan-renga. We’ll then use the haiku that people have brought to write our own tan-renga. There will be time to share the resulting poems and offer feedback.
3:00 p.m. — Break
3:10 p.m. — Brief Overview of Other Collaborative Forms
Tan-renga is just one form of collaborative poetry, but there are many others: haiku sequences, rengay, split sequences, linked haibun, haiga, gembun, and of course, renku. We’ll learn what they are and look at examples of each.
3:55 p.m. — Wrap-up and Adieu
April 9–10
VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia (in person)
Two free haiku workshops by Michael Dylan Welch on April 19 and April 20 (online)
April 16
“Jujutsu Kaisen: Haiku Training” cultural presentation and workshop by Michael Dylan Welch at Sakura-Con, Washington State Convention Center, 10:30 a.m.
April 17
International Haiku Poetry Day
May 12
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Presentation on deja-ku (haiku that bring to mind other poems) by Michael Dylan Welch
What Is Deja-ku, and Why Should You Not Fear It?
We’ve all had the experience of writing a haiku and finding out that it’s similar to another haiku written by someone else. This presentation by Michael Dylan Welch explores the varieties of deja-ku, both good and bad, and our emotional reactions to their full range, emphasizing that “deja-ku” shouldn’t be perceived as a pejorative term. In fact, most deja-ku (any haiku that brings to mind another) are worth celebrating, not decrying, especially poems that share season words or other subjects or experiences. If you have examples to ask about, please do.
May 31
Free “Haiku Targets” introductory workshop by Michael Dylan Welch for the Bellevue, Washington Japan Fair
June 9
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Presentation by Paul E. Nelson of Cascadia Poetics LAB about the Poetry Postcard Fest held every August
June 19
Deadline for Japan Fair haiku contest (free to enter); results announced July 9
July 9
Japan Fair (virtual for 2022; check the website for details)
Announcement of Japan Fair haiku contest results judged by Michael Dylan Welch
July 9 (Saturday)
Quarterly Meeting, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
After more than two years of Zoom meetings, Haiku Northwest will meet in person at the home of Michelle Schaefer (in her back yard) in Bothell, Washington (address sent via email—see below)
What to bring:
something to sit on (folding chair or blanket)
pen and something to write on (for a writing exercise)
five haiku or senryu that you admire, written neatly on individual notecards (please include poets’ names)
a copy of The Haiku Anthology (3rd edition) edited by Cor van den Heuvel (optional)
beverage for yourself
snacks (you’re welcome to stick with your own food if you’re more comfortable doing that)
mask (we’ll be outside where there’s plenty of room to distance from one another, but please do bring a mask in case you have to pop inside or interact with anyone up close)
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Michelle Schaefer at haikurunner55@gmail.com and she will send you her address and pertinent instructions. If you have any questions regarding the meeting itself, please email Tanya McDonald at tanyamc1375@gmail.com.
August 11
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Haiku sharing and discussion (on Zoom)
August 27
Washington Regional Meeting of the Haiku Society of America, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (free)
“The Ecology of Haiku,” featuring Washington State poet laureate Rena Priest, Michael Dylan Welch, and Victor Ortiz
The Breazeale Interpretive Center at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, 10441 Bayview-Edison Road, Mount Vernon, Washington
September
Moon Viewing Festival
CANCELLED for 2022, due to extensive garden renovations
September 8
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Haiku sharing and discussion (on Zoom)
September 20
Porad Haiku Award Deadline
(received by this date)
See 2022 winners
Winners announced at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway on October 29, 2022
Judge: Lenard D. Moore
Coordinator: Michelle Schaefer
September 24–30
Sponsored by Bellevue College, Bellevue, Washington
October 7–9
Haiku Down Under (virtual haiku conference)
See schedule and speakers on the website
October 8 (Saturday)
Quarterly Meeting, 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m.
12:00 pm — Welcome and announcements
12:10 pm — “Reading to Write: An Approach to Haiku Study” by Michele Root-Bernstein, followed by a reading (description and bio below)
1:40 pm — Break
1:50 pm — Anonymous Haiku Critique facilitated by Tanya McDonald (instructions below)
2:55 pm — Wrap-up and end
Reading to Write: An Approach to Haiku Study
As facilitator of the Evergreen Haiku Study Group, Michele has recently been organizing programs and workshops around a simple theme: reading to write. Today’s presentation/workshop offers highlights. Making use of published readings of individual haiku, we will delve into craft topics as vital to the beginner as to the adept poet, pondering how to stimulate the senses, capture the moment, and connect self with world. Combining haiku readings with discussion with exercises and time to improvise, we’ll see if we can push toward new ideas and techniques, growing together as haiku poets.
Michele Root-Bernstein devotes herself to the serious play of haiku, haibun, and related haikai arts. Her work appears in haiku journals at home and abroad, as well as in A New Resonance 6, Echoes 2, and Scent of the Past . . . Imperfect. Her first solo collection of haiku, Wind Rose, is available for free download from the Snapshot Press website. The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards gave Wind Rose an honorable mention in 2022. Michele previously served as associate editor of Frogpond; with Francine Banwarth, she published The Haiku Life: What We Learned as Editors of Frogpond (Modern Haiku Press, 2017). More recently, she served as book editor of Modern Haiku. Since the spring of 2016, she has been facilitating the Michigan-based Evergreen Haiku Study Group, producing their first anthology, Because of This Light, in 2020. Michele’s experience as a haiku poet feeds into her professional study of creative imagination and vice versa. Together with her husband Bob, she wrote Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, still in print after twenty years. In all that time, just about nothing has matched the aesthetic thrill of getting a haiku or haibun just right.
Anonymous Haiku Critique
Please email up to three haiku/senryu to Tanya McDonald at tanyamc1375@gmail.com before noon on Friday, October 7. Your poems should be unpublished and preferably ones for which you’d like to receive feedback. If you have a brief, specific question that you’d like addressed, you may include that with your poems and Tanya will mention it. Poets are encouraged to remain anonymous during the critique session. Look forward to a lively discussion.
October 27–30
Seabeck Haiku Getaway (our fifteenth annual retreat)
In-person gathering, with the weekend theme of crossing borders, welcoming Cristina Rascón from Veracruz, Mexico as our featured guest (registration opens August 10, 2022)
November 10
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Details to be announced (on Zoom)
December 8
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Details to be announced (on Zoom)
January 12, 2023
Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.
Details to be announced (may or may not be on Zoom)
Please also check the schedule for the Seattle Japanese Garden (see this website also). Several of the garden’s events typically include a haiku component, such as the moonviewing festival, which usually includes a haiku contest.
Click also to see event listings for 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009.