During Seabeck

You’ll want to know the following information about your time during the Seabeck Haiku Getaway.

Accommodations

For 2022, we’ll be staying in Pines (a brand-new building that opened in the late fall of 2021) and in Spruce. Rooms are limited (but all have private bathrooms), and we encourage you to double up if possible (we will pair you with a roommate unless you have your own roommate preference or request a private room). Read more about our accommodations, including photos and layout maps. Pines is also our meeting facility, and Spruce is nearby, and both are a short walk from our dining hall. Previously, we stayed in Reeser House, and it’s typical of accommodations at the conference center (see Seabeck Photos here), although Pines is much more modern. If necessary for additional overflow, we should be able to arrange other housing facilities on the conference grounds with more beds. Click to see the Seabeck campus map. For alternate accommodations, consider Eaglewood at Seabeck, an Airbnb. Additional hotels and motels are available in nearby Silverdale (about seven miles away). However, we eagerly encourage you to stay at our Seabeck accommodations.

Wi-Fi

Free wi-fi service is available all over Seabeck Conference Center facilities, with strongest connections in all the meeting rooms and accommodations. No password is required.

Meals

All meals are served at the Seabeck Conference Center dining hall, served buffet-style in 2022. Vegetarian and nonvegetarian options (including vegan, nonceliac gluten free, dairy-free, or a combination of these) are available at every meal, and they have a superb salad bar. Soy-free meals are no longer being offered. If you have additional dietary or allergy concerns, please let us know when you register.

Kukai

A tradition we’ve had at Seabeck since our retreat began is to have an annual kukai, or haiku contest. Participants offer two anonymous haiku on index cards (provided) for a voting process by attendees, with prizes given to the top poems. Participation is optional. We continue this tradition to recognize the way Japanese haiku group meetings are usually conducted, and to heighten our attention to the selection and consideration of poems. The process encourages the writing of new work, the mindful selection of poems to enter, and the careful consideration of everyone’s poems for the purpose of voting. When anyone selects your poem, at that moment the poem is said to be “born.” Winning poems are automatically included in the annual Seabeck conference anthology.