Photo by Robert Rotella
Alexis K. Rotella (born Alexis Kaye Semenik, January 16, 1947, Cairnbrook, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), American poet, editor, mobile-phone artist, interfaith minister, and licensed acupuncturist and student of Chinese medicine and energy medicine. Her haikai, longer poems, and articles have been published in specialist and general interest magazines, digital media, and anthologies since 1980. She is the author or editor of more than 40 books. Her contest successes include the Grand Prize in the 2007 Kusamakura Haiku Competition and six Museum of Haiku Literature Awards in Frogpond; she has also served as a judge in the HSA Henderson Haiku Awards and the Brady Senryu Awards, as well as the Japanese Itoen Oi Ocha New Haiku Contest. She received a New Jersey Fellowship for the Arts (1981); served as president of the Haiku Society of America as well as editor of Frogpond (1984) and served as honorary curator of the American Haiku Archive (2019–2020). Rotella was the founder of Brussels Sprout (1980–1987), The Persimmon Tree, a haiku newsletter (1990), and Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka (2008–2009), and served as an editor for Modern Haiga in 2008. Her artwork is published widely on the Internet and has been exhibited in Porto, Portugal, Florence and Milan, Italy, and Cagliari, Sardinia. She resides in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.