Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2021 Schedule

Welcome to Seabeck!

What a great schedule we have for you at the 2021 Seabeck Haiku Getaway! Our weekend theme is “togetherness,” something we’re all eager for amid our ongoing pandemic. Our featured guest is Chuck Brickley, who will give several featured presentations and workshops. Other events include haiku postcards, haibun and other writing workshops, anonymous critique sessions, readings, presentations, haiku writing time, renkurama, and more. Write Now sessions are brief haiku writing exercises, and we’ll have four of them this weekend, where we invite you to write spontaneously. All events take place in the Colman Building unless indicated otherwise. Fall colors will be vibrant, too! If you have silent auction or book fair items to set up, you can do so at any time (downstairs for the auction, upstairs for the book fair). Please also prepare a haiku handout or trifold to share with about 45 attendees (optional). The following schedule is subject to minor adjustments. See you at Seabeck!

On display all weekend in the Colman building, downstairs:

Weekend theme: Togetherness

Thursday, October 28, 2021

4:00 p.m. Check in at Historic Inn

6:00 p.m. Dinner

7:00 p.m. Welcome by Michael Dylan Welch, including land acknowledgment

7:30 p.m. Common Ground (icebreaker)

8:00 p.m. Chuck Brickley: “From Earthshine to Luna Piena”

A reading by Chuck Brickley, featuring a selection of his haiku, senryu, and hay(na)ku from the 70s to today.

8:30 p.m. Break

8:40 p.m. “Haiku Tag” round of haiku reading

Read a haiku of your own and then tag someone to read their poem next, with mood-matching guitar responses by Jacob Salzer.

9:10 p.m. Write Now: Jacob Salzer: “Pick a Prompt”

9:20 p.m. Renkurama / Socializing

9:40 p.m. Late-Night Rengay, etc.

Friday, October 29, 2021

8:00 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Richard Tice: Oh, the Places You’ll Go—Traveling the World through Utamakura (includes a writing exercise)

Utamakura—place names—are found in thousands of Japanese hokku and haiku, as well as every other genre of Japanese literature. A favorite pastime was to visit a famous place and compose a poem about it, often referring to another famous piece of literature about it. However, only a small percentage of these poems have made it into English translations, possibly because the places have little emotional impact to non-Japanese readers. Likewise, place names in English haiku appeared infrequently for several decades, though more recently writers have made occasional use of them. Through haiku, and with the help of search engines, we’ll vicariously visit places past and present in Japan and throughout the world. Then we’ll try writing haiku about places of significance to us.

9:50 a.m. Break

10:00 a.m. Ce Rosenow: “Gendai, Avant-Garde, and New Schools of American Haiku” presentation and discussion

10:50 a.m. Break (view haiku postcards on display)

11:00 a.m. Postcard Celebration

  • Reading postcards: Led by Michael Dylan Welch

  • Writing postcards: Led by Tanya McDonald

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. Margaret Chula: “Getting to Know You” haibun workshop

1:50 p.m. Break

2:00 p.m. Write Now: Sam Blair: “Frozen Moments: Photography and Haiku”

2:10 p.m. Chuck Brickley: “Netmending. A Haiku Revision Workshop”

Bring at least one poem that feels like it’s not quite there yet. And like village fishermen, we’ll help each other mend our nets.

3:40 p.m. Scavenger Hunt, facilitated by Angela Terry

Bring something back to display or to describe. Please also visit all the Haiku Northwest haiku plaques (20 installed around campus).

4:40 p.m. Anonymous Workshop, led by Tanya McDonald

5:30 p.m. Free Time

6:00 p.m. Dinner

7:00 p.m. Abigail Friedman: “Orbiting the Moon” presentation

Exploring moon haiku from in and out of Japan and a discussion of cultural and historical trends that have shaped how haiku poets approach the moon in their work. Participants are encouraged to share their moon-inspired haiku. Following the discussion, we will go out and look for the waning crescent moon, even if it’s cloudy. Note: The moon already set at 3:45 p.m. this afternoon and won’t rise again until 1:05 a.m. tomorrow.

8:00 p.m. Night Walk (rain or shine)

9:00 p.m. Haiku Sharing / Renkurama

9:30 p.m. Late-Night Rengay, etc.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

8:00 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Welcome by Michael Dylan Welch

9:10 a.m. Haiku Read-Around (one haiku each, for video recording)

9:30 a.m. Dorothy Matthews: Installation by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists

9:55 a.m. Break

10:00 a.m. Chuck Brickley: “A Life in (and out of) Haiku: An Interview”

Michael Dylan Welch in conversation with Chuck Brickley about his long connections to haiku and other aesthetic distractions. Audience questions welcome too.

11:00 a.m. Walk to Cathedral in the Woods (outdoors, unless it’s too wet)

11:10 a.m. Haiku Readings (10 minutes each)

    • Rich SchnellVince’s Stone Garden

    • Abigail Friedman: “Traveler of Eternity”

    • Margaret Chula: “Firefly Lanterns: Twelve Years in Kyoto”

    • Jacob Salzer: “Gratitude”

    • John Stevenson: “My Red”

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. 2021 Porad Awards, announced by contest coordinator Ron Swanson, judged by Susan Antolin (not present), with music by Jacob Salzer and Jim Rodriguez

1:30 p.m. Group Photo (plus individuals/small groups)

2:00 p.m. Cemetery Walk: Led by John S Green (rain or shine)

3:00 p.m. Annette Makino: “Listening to the View: Linking Words and Images in Haiga”

Slide show featuring Annette’s haiku, haibun, and haiga, starting with senryu about modern life. This presentation draws from her new book of watercolor haiga, Water and Stone. She will also show her most recent Asian-inspired collage haiga and walk through her process for creating a finished piece. Annette will then explain approaches to linking and shifting between the words and image in haiga. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to write haiku to accompany several provided images.

3:50 p.m. Break, with coffee service

4:00 p.m. Write Now: Aidan Castle: Preparing your Dream Garden

4:10 p.m. Kukai (anonymous haiku contest with two poems each); we’ll be doing this year’s kukai in a more traditional way, discussing poems as we go

6:00 p.m. Dinner

7:00 p.m. Silent Auction wrap-up

7:30 p.m. Anonymous Workshop, led by Michael Dylan Welch

8:30 p.m. Seabeck Salon (evening talent sharing and socializing, with everyone in a relaxed circle—please responsively share a song, a longer poem or story, or other creativity)

9:30 p.m. Late-Night Rengay

Sunday, October 31, 2021

9:00 a.m. Michael Dylan Welch: “Harold Henderson’s Grammar Haiku”

9:50 a.m. Break (start clean-up)

10:00 a.m. Chuck Brickley: “Haiku Fellowship (or, How I Found What I Didn’t Know I Was Looking For)”

Bring your favorite haiku stories, anecdotes, and whatever lore from yore that may inspire a laugh, shiny eyes, or otherwise inspire our unique sense of togetherness.

10:50 a.m. Write Now: Michael Dylan Welch: “Even in Seabeck”

11:00 a.m. Break / Clean-up

11:20 a.m. Renkurama Reading and Weekend Highlights

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. Check-out time!


Happy Halloween!