Biographies

A. A. Marcoff (born Anthony Alexei Marcoff, December 30, 1956, Tehran, Iran). British retired mental health professional, now a mainstream poet and writer of minimalist poetry mainly working in tanka and tanka prose. With interests in Zen, mysticism, and philosophy, he has been writing haiku since 1968, and he has been anthologized in John Barlow and Martin Lucas, The New Haiku (2002) and Jim Kacian, Haiku in English: the First Hundred Years (2013). His tanka prose poem ”the moon & memory” won the Presence best-of-issue award in 2017. His two-volume book of tanka prose poems river of the world, a kind of poetic autobiography, appeared in 2019. Marcoff has lived in Africa, Iran, France, and Japan, and now resides in Leatherhead, Surrey, England.

Abigail Friedman (born July 9, 1956, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.), retired American diplomat and national security official and prize-winning haiku poet and author. Studied in Japan under haiku master Momoko Kuroda. Founded the first bilingual French/English haiku group in Quebec City and the Supernova haiku group in the D.C. area; judge of the Golden Haiku Contest. Friedman is the author of three haiku-related books and contributor to many anthologies. Resides in Washington, D.C.

Adjei Agyei-Baah (born Eric Adjei Baah, June 29, 1977, Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana), lecturer, translator, editor, and haiku poet. He is currently a PhD candidate in English at the Division of Education, University of Waikato, New Zealand. He is the cofounder of Africa Haiku Network, Poetry Foundation Ghana, and The Mamba, Africa's first haiku journal.

Agnes Eva Savich (born Agnieszka Ewa Milewska, November 18, 1976, Kraków, Poland), university program coordinator, oboist, and haiku poet. Her collection, The Watcher: Poems, was published in 2009. Founder and leader of the Austin, Texas Haiku Group; judge of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Contest; editor of the Haiku Society of America Southwest Region 2021 members’ anthology; and curator of the Memorial Presentation for Haiku North America 2021. Lives in Pflugerville, Texas.

Ágnes Gergely (Hungarian style: Gergely Ágnes; born Ágnes Guttmann, October 5, 1933, Endrőd, Hungary) poet, writer, essayist, editor, translator, and educator. Since her first collection of poetry, Ajtófélfámon jel vagy (Sign On My Door Jamb) went into print in 1963, she has published 19 volumes. Her rich poetic oeuvre spans several genres, including haiku. A number of her poems have been translated into English. She resides in Budapest.