Haiku North America

If you write haiku, are curious about it, or fond of it or other short forms like haiga, tanka and senyru, you have an opportunity to explore it.

Coming to Ottawa August 5th to 9th is the 2009 Haiku North America conference. The conference only happens every 2 years and this time will be at the National Library. It was last held in Canada in 1995. This is a rare chance in our own backyard.

As Garry Gay points out,

"This conference is a real opportunity to meet some of the very best of the world’s haiku writers. These are the poets who are at the top of their game. [...] Many of the attending poets will bring poems to share in the form of new books. So if you’re a lover of books as much as I am, you want to bring an empty bag to bring home all the new volumes of poetry.

There will be readings, publishers, book tables, writing workshop, talks on epiphanies, haiku experience, an observation/poetry-writing (ginko) walk as well as an Ottawa River cruise among many other things. People who have practiced the craft locally, nationally and from around the world will be participating. Here is a schedule of events. This blog has posters and will follow the conference with updates.

For those who want to whet their haiku appetites, there will be a Purdyfest will have a haiku day the week before.