2022 Events

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.

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 They can be your own (published or unpublished) or by someone else

• 1 haiku or senryu of your own (preferably unpublished) to use in a writing exercise with others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

Sakura Days Japan Fair

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

Seattle Japanese Garden

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 submission guidelines

See 2022 winners

Winners announced at the Seabeck Haiku Getaway on October 29, 2022

Judge: Lenard D. Moore

Coordinator: Michelle Schaefer

September 24–30

Japan Week

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.

Sharing and critique (on Zoom)

December 8

Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Sharing and critique (on Zoom)

January 12, 2023

Monthly Meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Details to be announced (on Zoom)

See our 2023 event schedule

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.