Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2022 Schedule

Welcome to Seabeck!

We’re developing a great schedule for you at the 2022 Seabeck Haiku Getaway! Our weekend theme is “crossing borders” and our featured guest is Cristina Rascón, visiting from Veracruz, Mexico, who will give several featured presentations and workshops. Other events include writing workshops, anonymous critique sessions, readings, presentations, haiku writing time, a panel discussion, 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 new Pines 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. Please also prepare a haiku handout or trifold to share with about 65 attendees (optional). Per state guidelines, masks are optional, but you are welcome to wear them if you prefer. The following schedule is subject to minor changes. See you at Seabeck!

Thursday, October 27, 2022

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

6:00 p.m. Dinner

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

7:20 p.m. Common Ground (icebreaker)

7:50 p.m. Cristina Rascón: “The Bridge of Haiku” (reading)

8:10 p.m. Dorothy Matthews: “Ten Years of Haiga Adventure Installations”

8:20 p.m. Break (visit the haiga installation)

8:30 p.m. Write Now: Gary Evans: “Borders Come in Different Ways”

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.

9:00+ p.m. Anonymous Workshop, led by Captain Haiku

Friday, October 28, 2022

8:00 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Michael Dudley: “Croatian Haiku”

• • “Depths of Spirit” — Part travelogue, part history, part prose poem, part anthology, this presentation explores the deep wellsprings and vibrant flow ways of Croatian haiku.

  • “Co-creation” — A video in five voices and two languages that discusses the bilingual, cross-cultural collection of haiku, senryu, sequences, and rengay titled Nexus Haiku. Each poem in the volume—which includes artwork by Nina Šestanovic and a foreword by Sanela Pliško—has been composed by two or all three of the authors: Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretic, and Dejan Pavlinovic.

9:50 a.m. Break

10:00 a.m. Haiku Readings (10 minutes each)

Chuck Brickley, Helen Ogden, Nicholas Klacsanzky, Antoinette Cheung, and Lisa Gerlits

10:50 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. Cristina Rascón: “Mexican Haiku in First-Nation Languages: Borders Within Borders”

Mexico has 68 first-nation official languages. In the 21st century, poetry written in indigenous languages has been increasingly read and visible within Mexican literature. Haiku is one of the genres that indigenous poets have written as an experimental poetic form for anthologies or brief sections of their poetry books. In 2016 poet Nelson Guerra, from Oaxaca, won a literature prize for a book entirely of haiku: Tapombo (a fruit). It was written in the Didxazá or Zapotec language. Other first-nation contemporary poets who previously wrote haiku or similar poetry will be addressed as well, such as women poets Ethel Xochitiotzin and Natalia Toledo, pointing out similarities between Japanese traditional poetry and Mexican pre-hispanic/contemporary first-nation poetry.

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. Lisa Gerlits: “Haiku That Tell a Story”

Some haiku have a story to tell. They spin a partial tale of love or loss, revenge, or redemption. But can three little lines really tell a complete story? Let’s find out. We’ll examine poems that use elements of story—such as conflict, character, and setting—to give us a glimpse into a much larger story. Then we’ll write our own. Come with pencils and imaginations at the ready!

1:50 p.m. Break

2:00 p.m. Write Now: Elaine Miller Bond: “Animals Crossing Borders: Moments of Meaning”

2:10 p.m. Break

2:15 p.m. John Stevenson: “Seeing a Definition of English-Language Haiku as an Open Question”

Should English-language haiku be free of definition? We’ll consider this perspective to liberate our haiku from harmful definition and misinformation so its status as an open question can foster further developments.

3:00 p.m. Big Break

3:30 p.m. Richard Tice: “Cutting Haiku into Pieces”

A kire (cut or break) cuts haiku into two parts juxtaposed against each other and is a defining characteristic of Japanese hokku and haiku, one that has carried over to English-language haiku and senryu. Kireji (characters that cut) are related word endings and particles, mandatory in hokku, that can either break a haiku into two parts or act as a cut-off at the end. These are more difficult to carry over into English, but many poets use some equivalents, probably without realizing that they do. This presentation examines both kireji and kire, what they are, where the cuts occur, what they do, and how they are used in Japanese and English haiku.

4:00 p.m. Break

4:10 p.m. Aidan Castle: “The Dragon in the Attic: Revision Tricks”

Did you ever have the hiccups and someone said, “Drink a glass of water very fast and they’ll go away”? You didn’t believe them . . . until your hiccups disappeared. Like a powerful, shimmering dragon in the attic of your mind, the tricks in this workshop can take your most stubborn poems to new heights. Bring a poem you’ve been struggling with and we’ll send you home with a trick to help rework it.

5:00 p.m. Break

5:10 p.m. Jacquie Pearce: “Lost and Found: Haiku from Japanese Canadian Internment Camps”

How important was haiku in Japanese Canadian internment camps during World War II? Canadian haiku poet and historical writer Jacquie Pearce has been working with colleagues in Japan to unearth lost documents and translate haiku written in the camps—revealing unexpected surprises about early haiku in Canada.

6:00 p.m. Dinner

7:00 p.m. Nicholas Klacsanzky: “Shining Wheat Fields: Haiku in Ukraine”

The heartbreaking war in Ukraine has brought its haiku poets to special mind this year. This presentation explores leading Ukrainian haiku poets and poems.

7:45 p.m. Break

8:00 p.m. Anonymous Workshop, led by Captain Haiku

9:00+ p.m. Late-Night Rengay

Saturday, October 29, 2022

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. Write Now: Michelle Schaefer: “Crossing Borders: First Timers”

9:40 a.m. Break

9:45 a.m. Haibun and Haiku Readings

• Carole MacRury: “Point Roberts: Life in Lockdown” (15 minutes)

• Commencement Bay Haiku Anthology: This Morning’s Tides (20 minutes) with Aidan Castle, Bill Fay, Dianne Garcia, Alan Harvey,
  Dorothy Matthews, Kathleen Tice, and Michael Dylan Welch

10:20 a.m. Break

10:30 a.m. “Crossing Borders” panel discussion with Terran Campbell, moderator, and Aidan Castle, Michael Dudley, Katharine Grubb,
Nicholas Klacsanzky, Cristina Rascón, and Michelle Schaefer

What are some alternate ways to cross borders? Not into different countries or regions but in personal identity? How do we recognize and support inclusion more broadly in haiku poetry? This panel discussion will dive deeply into these and other border-bending questions.

12:00 noon Lunch

1:00 p.m. 2022 Porad Awards announced by contest coordinator Michelle Schaefer, judged by Lenard D. Moore (not present), with music by Nicholas Klacsanzky and Jacob Salzer

1:30 p.m. Kukai Announcement

1:35 p.m. Group Photo (plus individuals/small groups)

1:45 p.m. Nature Walk, inspired by Jacob Salzer (rain or shine)

On your walk, think of each of your five senses and try to write a haiku for each sense. Or think of someone you know (here, elsewhere, or who has passed away) who has spent a significant amount of time in nature or with a deep connection to the earth, and write haiku that includes or honors that person.

2:45 p.m. Cristina Rascón: “How Haiku was Born in Hispanic-American Literature (1919–1940): Crossing Genre Borders”

Haiku came to Hispanic America from Japan, France, the United States, and Spain. Since its very beginning this poetical form was born from the discovery and fusion of several poetic forms and the cosmogonies of these countries. In addition, poets were looking for innovative forms of poetry from abroad, as well as for their own style or “temper” as they would call it, that would integrate indigenous cultures, American nature, and their own social complex context. Haiku was born from such searches, with three main “fathers” of the genre: José Juan Tablada (Mexico), Flavio Herrera (Guatemala) and Jorge Carrera Andrade (Ecuador). We will review their thoughts on haiku in Hispanic America, read their very visual and ludic haiku, and consider the implications of haiku in their own work and the future of what Hispanic-American haiku would be.

3:35 p.m. Break

3:45 p.m. Haibun and Haiku Readings

• Maggie Chula: “Headlong into the Unknown” (15 minutes)

• Last Train Home Anthology (20 minutes)

All aboard! Readers, in order: John Stevenson, Elizabeth-Ann Winkler, Rich Schnell, Carole MacRury, John S Green, Dianne Garcia, Angela Terry, Tanya McDonald, Gary Evans, Lynne Jambor, Nicholas Klacsanzky, David Berger, Kathleen Tice, Michael Dylan Welch, and Jacquie Pearce

4:20 p.m. Christopher Herold: Cascadia art book (presentation and reading)

4:50 p.m. Break

5:00 p.m. Chuck Brickley: “Why Haiku”

Borders exist to stay within, and to cross. The more in touch we are with the specifics of our artform, the more confident we are to employ them; the more aware of its limitations, the freer we are to explore, expand, and go beyond. This guided discussion seeks answers to deep questions about why we write.

6:00 p.m. Dinner

7:00 p.m. Silent Auction wrap-up and kukai poems due

7:30 p.m. Michael Dylan Welch: “A Dying Art: Death Haiku in Japanese and English”

The tradition of writing a jisei, or death haiku, has a long history in Japan, and a growing history in English. This presentation presents selections of haiku from both cultures, each one crossing a border, in this case from life to death. Do we write as if each haiku could be our last?

8:20 p.m. Break

8:30 p.m. “Celebrating Haiku Ancestors,” coordinated by Terran Campbell and Katharine Grubb

Traditionally the Seabeck Haiku Getaway has fallen close to Halloween. This year we will honor our haiku ancestors with a ceremony. Take some time to reflect on your own haiku path. Who introduced you to haiku? Who has been most influential? Is there a haiku poet who speaks particularly to you? What and where are you inspired to write about? Together we will create an art installation in the moment through each person’s contribution. You will have a space to place a photo, a rock, a book from fifth grade, or a haiku that you love, with the option to say a few words about what each contribution represents for you and the haiku ancestors who brought you to this place. You are also welcome to say how your family and cultural traditions remember ancestors and loved ones. Participation is completely optional. We want everyone to feel comfortable.

10:00+ p.m. Evening socializing, talent sharing, and spontaneous salon-style shenanigans

Sunday, October 30, 2022

8:00 a.m. Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Write Now: David Watts: “Paired Images”

9:10 a.m. John Stevenson: “The United Nations Student Haiku Contests”

Since 2007 John Stevenson has been the English-language judge of annual student haiku contests sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations and by the United Nations International School. These contests began with a somewhat local focus, on schools in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but now attract entries from around the world. John will present and discuss selected poems and trends in this ongoing invitation to cross boundaries.

9:50 a.m. Break

10:00 a.m. Cristina Rascón: “Mexican Haiku Workshop”

We will get to know the first Spanish-language kigo dictionary online, “Haiku y kigo” (www.haikukigo.com), which includes two dictionaries: the classical Japanese kigo words in a Japanese-Spanish version and a Mexican kigo dictionary (Spanish and some indigenous languages). This initiative adapts the logic of the Japanese seasonal words to Mexican nature and cultures. We will discuss how the kigo concept can travel and cross borders and how to live and write haiku from there. We will write and share our own Mexican (or any other region of the world) haiku to close the workshop.

10:50 a.m. Break / Clean-up

11:10 a.m. Weekend Highlights (gratitude, discussion, and sharing)

12:00 noon Lunch

2:00 p.m. Check-out time!

Happy Halloween!