American Haiku

American Haiku was the first periodical publication outside Japan devoted entirely to haiku and senryu and it was a landmark in the development of haiku in English. Under the general editorship of James Bull, Donald Eulert, and Clement Hoyt, and with contributions from many other leading poets, the pocket-sized magazine was launched in Platteville, Wisconsin, in late 1963 and published twice a year until May 1968. American Haiku featured many of the top American haiku poets, and the short essays and reviews set the standards for English-language haiku scholarship and criticism for years to come.

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American Haiku in Brief

Full Title	American Haiku
Periodicity	Semiannual
Dates	6 volumes; 1963–May 1968
Editors	Vol. 1—James Bull and Donald Eulert Vol. 2—Clement Hoyt Vol. 3–vol. 6, no. 1—James Bull, Editor of Prose, and Robert Spiess, Editor in Charge of Poetry, assisted by two changing Poetry Editors Vol. 5, no. 2–Vol. 6, no. 1, Robert Spiess, Gary Brower, and James Bull, Poetry Editors; James Bull, Prose Editor Vol. 6, no. 2—James Bull and Gayle Bull, Editors
Publisher	Vol. 1 and Vols. 3–6—American Haiku, P.O. Box 73, Platteville, WI 53818 Vol. 2—American Haiku, P.O. Box 26737, Houston, TX 77032
Web address	None
Physical description	Beige card covers side-stapled and glued; tinted page stock with brown ink; 17.5 x 10.5 cm (7˝ x 4.25˝); typically 64–72 pages
Principal contents	Haiku and senryu submitted by subscribers; short essays and reviews; illustrations
Other features	Cash awards for best three haiku accepted for each issue; Books Received (short reviews); A Bookshelf For the Haiku Poet and Reader; Now Available: Books by our Award-Winning Haiku Poets
ISSN	0569-4981
OCLC	—
Subscriptions	$2.00 yearly—U.S. and Canada, $3.50—Foreign

A Dedicated Haiku Journal

The appearance in 1963 of American Haiku was an important landmark in the development of English-language haiku, especially for North America. This journal and those that followed have provided a sense of community for nonprofessional poets scattered across the continent, a forum for critiquing and discussion one another’s work, and a road map for the development of the genre. Besides publishing original haiku, American Haiku promoted the discussion of both techniques and the directions that haiku in the West might take.

Although some haiku had been published here and there in small magazines, American Haiku was the first publication devoted solely to haiku (and the related senryu) written in the English language. Twice a year for six years this little magazine went out to an increasing number of poets and others interested in English-language haiku, setting a high standard for the periodicals that would follow. American Haiku printed seminal articles about haiku craft and esthetics and featured book reviews, some written with a startling frankness that has rarely been repeated in the years since.

The Issues

American Haiku issues labeled number one and number two were published in Platteville, Wis., under the joint editorship of James Bull, professor of English in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Wisconsin—Platteville, and Donald Eulert, professor in the California School of Professional Psychology and director of Humanistic Studies at the Alliant International University, San Diego, California.

In their new enterprise, Bull and Eulert enjoyed the enthusiastic blessing of Harold G. Henderson, the preeminent haiku scholar in America. Issue number one was dedicated to him, and Henderson wrote a cordial letter suggesting the important role that AH could play in setting standards for English-language haiku as opposed to the prevailing Japanese norms:

To sum up. My point is that there was—and is—real validity in most of the Japanese criteria, BUT, that they do not necessarily apply to English haiku. If there is to be a real “American Haiku” we must—by trial and error—work out our own standards.… I would not expect—or want—everybody to agree with me. But I do believe that one of the great functions AMERICAN HAIKU could perform is that of being a forum for the expression of divergent opinions.
In any case, I look forward to the day when “First Published in AMERICAN HAIKU” will be an accolade of honor to our haiku poets.¹

Henderson also contributed a haiku to the first issue of AH; it was signed cryptically “H. H.” and is one of the very few haiku Henderson ever published:

Lone whippoorwill call;
   my spring love waited—till dark,
      but that was all.

In toto, including the three award-winning haiku, AH 1:1 featured 185 original poems.

In AH issue number two, Clement Hoyt, an established poet, student of Zen, and specialist in senryu, answered Henderson’s call with what may have been the first attempt to define and delineate “Haiku and Senryu,” as his article was titled. This issue contained 125 original poems plus another 8 that were included in essays and reviews.

The two issues in the second year were published in Houston, Texas, under the editorship of Clement Hoyt, an established poet, student of Zen, and specialist in senryu. Hoyt made only minor changes in the distinctive format and content of the magazine, for example, beginning to number the original haiku (there were 225 in issue 2:1 and 112 in 2:2). Hoyt began including short, instructive articles on the craft and practice of haiku (see the bibliography below).

The publication returned to Platteville, Wis., in 1965 and remained there for the duration of its run. The price of an issue rose from $1.00 to $1.50. The masthead of American Haiku 3:1 presented a new array of editors: Robert Spiess as Editor in Charge of Poetry, Phil Adams and Walter H. Kerr as Poetry Editors, and James Bull as Editor in Charge of Prose. They selected 126 numbered haiku. Bull’s “Editorial Statement” in this issue was a response to Henderson’s letter and laid out directions for the growth of American haiku. “In sum,” Bull wrote, “the haiku is a poem, and artless poem, a natural poem.”

Vol. 3, no. 2 listed Gustave Keyser and Ted-Larry Pebworth as Poetry Editors in place of Adams and Kerr. In a publisher’s note in this issue, Bull explained the change and provided insight into the editorial decision-making of the magazine:

Some correspondents have asked why the haiku published in the same and in subsequent issues of AMERICAN HAIKU do not always reflect the theories advanced in the articles which are printed in a given issue of the magazine. Three poetry editors vote on all haiku published in each issue. With each issue, two of the editors are new to our editorial board—this to assure continuity, on the one hand, and to insure that no one group unduly restrict the development of an American haiku, on the other. The editors of one issue may or may not agree with one another or with the editors of another issue, as to what constitutes the best approach to haiku. They may or may not agree with the various theories advanced in the articles. In choosing haiku, they work for a consensus, through majority vote. Furthermore, all editors of AMERICAN HAIKU are concerned with the problem of producing a magazine. They must select what they honestly believe to be the best of what they receive. In doing so, they are sometimes required to select that which they as critics, editors, and poets would reject in their own work

This issue contained 126 original haiku and also expanded the series of instructive articles on haiku composition, in this case pieces on rhythm (Spiess), weak verbs (Pebworth), clichés (Pebworth), and insight and awareness (Thomas Johnston).

Poetry Editors for issue 4:1 were Sam Bryan, who had published several haiku in AH, and Joyce W. Welch, who had not. They selected 126 haiku/senryu for publication. Major prose pieces included essays on strong verbs (Keyser), Zen in haiku (Hoyt), and “Haiku Experience vs. Haiku Poem” (Bull), as well as a review/promotional article on The Heron’s Legs, “a book of haiku by its chief poetry editor,” Robert Spiess.

In issue 4:2 James Bull, together with Charles C. Rogers, was listed as a poetry editor as well as continuing as Editor in Charge of Prose. Some 153 original haiku/senryu were included. Articles included a useful “A Short History of the Haiku in English” (Gary Brower), “Giving a Hokku Party” (Hoyt), and “Simile and Metaphor in Haiku” (Bull), as well as basic information about three contests, including that of American Haiku, in “Guide to Haiku Awards.” Two books from American Haiku Press, their first, received one-page reviews/promotional pieces as well.

James Bull was joined by Gary Brower as Poetry Editor for issue 5:1, and they selected 127 original haiku/senryu for inclusion. Spotlighted in essays were “Specific Objects in Haiku” (Spiess), “Season Reference in Japanese and American Haiku” (James Bull and Gayle Bull), and “Verbless Haiku” (Spiess).

Robert Spiess, who had previously been listed as Editor in Charge of Poetry, was now one of three Poetry Editors—with Brower and Bull—in issue 5:2. One hundred twenty-six original haiku/senryu were featured. Spiess’s essay “The Haiku’s Two Dangerous Lines,” Hoyt’s “The Border Zone Haiku,” and Akira Kimura (Rojin)’s “Japanese Life in Contemporary Senryu” also appeared. Additionally “Announcing Marsh-Grasses,” by O Southard, a review/promotion for the third book from American Haiku Press was included.

Significant changes in format, content and staffing of American Haiku were evident in the two issues of Volume 6 (1968). Although the cover and and paper stock, including the color and dimensions, remained the same, the final two issues were printed in portrait rather than landscape and saddle-stapled rather than side-stapled and glued. For issue 6:1 the editors remained the same, but a note signed “JEB, Publisher” read “We wish to thank Robert Spiess and Gary Brower for their many services to American Haiku. As editors, their task has never been an easy one. In the future, American Haiku poetry will be edited by James and Gayle Bull.” AH 6:1 contained 135 original haiku (including the 4 award winners), the conclusion of Akira Kimura’s two-part article “Japanese Life in Contemporary Senryu,” and former editor Joyce W. Webb’s short piece titled “Haiku and Headlines.” The centerpiece of both issues of Volume 6, however, was a very long and detailed “Study of Season Reference in American Haiku” by James Bull and Gayle Bull. Part One was introduced by the following paragraphs:

After we had published our “Season Reference in Japanese and American Haiku” …, many readers expressed an interest in examining the original list of 118 English-language haiku (the core of our study). Not a few expressed an interest in making a similar study of the possibility of seasonality in English-language haiku, as applied to their own geographic areas.
    To aid those people, we have decided to publish not only the entire list of haiku but also the following materials sent to respondents: the cover letter to our original respondents; the directions to respondents; and an excerpt from the respondents’ graph. Anyone with the interest, time and energy can now make his own study (and we would be most interested in his results)
     In future issues of American Haiku, we will publish the national collation of all votes obtained in the original study; more articles based on the original study; and the names of the authors of the coded haiku (not published with the haiku, because we do not wish to tempt readers to make guesses based on possible knowledge of an individual author’s geographic area).
     In this way, we feel that the serious student of the form will end with a far better knowledge of the possibilities of season in English-language haiku. For those not interested in such knowledge, we hope that their enjoyment of the haiku will be our justification. 

A notice on the masthead of issue 6:1 and repeated in issue 6:2, indicated that American Haiku would henceforth be published three times a year, and indeed this issue was dated May 1968, four months after issue 6:1 (January 1968). No third issue appeared, however; rather, without explanation or forewarning in the magazine, issue 6:2 was the last.

This final issue featured 213 new haiku, plus the 4 award winners, and two essays by James Bull: “Los Altos Writers Roundtable” (the California group that began working in haiku as early as 1956) and “The House of Illusions” (about Bashō“s journeys around Japan). The conclusion of the Bulls’ study of season references, however, was the highlight of the issue. This article presented the very large and complicated statistical table that recorded the perceptions of participants from six different geographic areas in the United States of the type of area (city or rural) represented in the haiku, the season of the year, and the time (early, late, or middle) within the season. For example,

In using the table, the essential thing to remember is that it is keyed by column (top to bottom) and by row (left to right). Thus, with the haiku code number on the left and the roman numeral (geographic area designation) at the top as co-ordinates, the reader can find the vote for a given haiku in a given area. If one wants to know the Arkansas-Louisiana (III) seasonal status of

     In that empty house,
        with broken windows rattling,
           a door slams and slams.

he takes co-ordinates 6:96 on the left and III at the top. At the juncture of those two lines, he finds “B4?” which means that for the Arkansas-Louisiana voters the haiku’s primary applicability is to both city and rural localities (B), to winter season (4), but to no definitely assignable period within season (?). If he wants to ascertain the vote in other areas, he has but to read the row left to right to discover that all other areas gave it nonseasonal vote (5), and both city and rural applicability (B). ((Quote from American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 49. Haiku by Tohko (Clement Hoyt) in American Haiku 3:2 (1965) #96.))

“Study of Season Reference in American Haiku” was surely the first statistically rigorous analysis of a body of English-language haikai, and it was a fitting valedictory for James Bull’s noble publishing vision.

Awards

For publication in each of the first two issues of American Haiku, the editors selected three haiku that were judged to be the best entries in a competition of original haiku in English in a contest held in advance of publication. Cash awards of $35.00, $15.00, and $5.00 were awarded for the first, second, and third place haiku, respectively. For issues 2:1 through 3:1 the editors designated four additional winners for Special Awards and eight for Special Mention. From issue 3:2 onward, the notion of contest was dropped and one haiku was selected from each month’s submissions and awarded $10.00. Four or five monthly winners were published in each issue of the magazine. All prizewinning poets and their haiku are listed in the Haikupedia document American Haiku Awards.

American Haiku Press

In 1966 American Haiku expanded its scope and began publishing verse collections by some of its most prominent editors and poets. The first was Robert Spiess’s The Heron’s Legs (54 haiku on 52 pages, in an edition of 350 copies). A review/promotional blurb for the book in AH 4:2 explained the rationale for selecting Spiess’s book for publication and gave a glimpse into the magazine’s editorial principles:

Our faithful subscribers know that the policy of AMERICAN HAIKU is not to publish the haiku of its editors while they are serving as editors. Robert Spiess has served as a poetry editor for over two years; consequently his haiku have been unavailable to our readers.

Publication of The Heron’s Legs was followed later in the year by Clement Hoyt’s collection County Seat (27 titled senryu on 14 double pages; 350 copies; by “one of the best English language haiku poets and certainly our best senryu poet”). The year 1967 saw the publication of O Southard’s Marsh-grasses and Other Verses (52 haiku on 64 pages; 350 copies).

Much later, in 2010, a new imprint called American Haiku Publisher based in Mineral Point, Wis., and run by former AH editor Gayle Bull issued a small-edition chapbook of haiga by local haiku poet and graphic artist Charles Baker.

The Poets

Harold Henderson had expressed the hope that “‘First Published in American Haiku’ [would] be an accolade of honor to our haiku poets.” His faith was amply justified, and AH soon attracted the top haiku poets writing in English, their presence, in turn, adding luster to this novel magazine.

In 1962 Bull and Eulert ran an advertisement in the national weekly Saturday Review announcing their intent to launch a journal dedicated to American haiku. The response was encouraging, and a large number of established and novice haiku poets signed on.

Pioneering New Jersey haiku poet Nick Virgilio, for one example among many, was enormously proud to have placed three poems—soon to become signature haiku of his—in the first two issues of American Haiku: ²

Lily:
   out of the water …
      out of itself.


Bass
     picking bugs|
          off the moon!


Spring wind frees
    the full moon tangled
        in leafless trees.

One active poet curiously absent from the pages of American Haiku was Raymond Roseliep, who had been composing haiku from the mid-1960s, whose home In Dubuque, Iowa, was a scant 20 miles from Platteville, Wis., and who knew and was a friend and collaborator of Robert Spiess in the 1980s.⁶

The table below lists the poets who published 15 or more haiku or senryu in American Haiku. The count includes verses that were included in reviews and essays as well as original poems.

Most-published Poets in American Haiku

O M B Southard [Mabelsson Norway] — 65 Nicholas A. Virgilio — 57 Marjory Bates Pratt — 49 Foster Jewell — 45 Charles Shaw — 41 Clement Hoyt [Tohko]— 28 Lorraine Ellis Harr — 26 Evelyn Tooley Hunt & Tao-Li — 26 John S. Haney — 24 Mary lou Wells — 24 Gustave Keyser — 23 Marjorie Bertram Smith — 23 Travis S. Frosig [Ga-Go]— 22 Warren F. O’Rourke — 22 Cornelia P. Draves — 21 Walter H. Kerr — 21

Anne Landauer — 20 Tom Tico — 20 Paul O. Williams — 20 Helen Stiles Chenoweth — 18 James W. Hackett — 18 Elizabeth Searle Lamb — 18 William E. Lee — 18 Irma Wassall — 18 Anne Rutherford — 17 Betty Calvert — 16 Peter Frengel — 16 Joanne W. Borgesen — 15 Magdalene M. Douglas — 15 Larry Gates — 15 Gloria Maxson — 15

James W. Hackett and American Haiku

James W. Hackett, a seasoned poet and Zen devotee who by 1963 had been composing haiku for more than ten years, was one of those poets who responded to the Saturday Review announcement. He was searching for places where his haiku might be published. ⁷ Hackett turned out to be the star poet in the first issues of American Haiku. Eleven of his haiku were accepted for the first issue, seven more for the second. This one received First Prize in the American Haiku Awards in the maiden issue:

Searching on the wind, 
   the hawk’s cry
      is the shape of its beak.

Another haiku of Hackett’s that was enormously influential:

The fleeing sandpipers
   turn about suddenly
      and chase back the sea!

This was the version of the “bitter morning” haiku that Hackett controversially recast into 5–7–5–syllable format in order to enter in (and win) the Japan Air Lines National Haiku Contest in 1964:

Bitter morning
   sparrows sitting
      without necks.

The American Haiku editors were so taken with Hackett’s work that they agreed to publish a collection of his haiku and assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. Meanwhile, R. H. Blyth, the great anthologist and historian of Japanese haiku, had told Hackett that he would include a collection of Hackett’s haiku in the forthcoming second volume of his History of Haiku. In that volume Blyth explained:

The following thirty [actually thirty-one] verses are chosen, not altogether at random, from a forthcoming book of haiku by J. W. Hackett of San Francisco. They are in no way imitations of Japanese haiku, nor literary diversions. They are (aimed at) the Zen experience, the realising, the making real in oneself of the thing-in-itself, impossible to rational thought, but possible, “all poets believe” in experience.¹⁰

The “forthcoming book of haiku” was the manuscript that Hackett and the AH editors had been working on. It now comprised 150 haiku, including all but one of those that Blyth had chosen for the History. Hackett asked Blyth to write a foreword. Haiku Poetry, was published in paperback in 1964, but not by American Haiku Press, rather by Hokuseido Press in Tokyo. Blyth had clearly used his influence to gain publication with his publisher in Japan, a mark of his esteem for Hackett.

No one had thought to inform the AH editors of the change in plans. James Bull was deeply saddened by the experience, but Clement Hoyt, a man known for his strong opinions and lack of reticence in expressing them, was furious at what he considered Hackett’s double-dealing. Hoyt apparently took it upon himself to write an incendiary letter of complaint to Hackett in early 1964, and Hackett passed it on to Blyth. Hoyt’s letter no longer exists and it is known only through Blyth’s reply to Hackett, his last letter, dated April 1964, which Hackett kept. Blyth sought to console his young American correspondent:

As for the foreword to your book itself, I am very willing to write one, but after reading Mr. XXX’s shocking letter, I feel that we should be imitating him if I scratch your back in public. I think your book should stand by itself, and would be only weakened if the Archangel Michael wrote a foreword.
     After I read XXX’s letter, I felt miserable all day, not that I felt sorry for you, but for the fact that such a person exists. But still we know that all Kings and Emperors and Presidents and Prime Ministers and Heads of Universities and Companies and Popes and bishops and priests and even editors are liars and hypocrites and robbers, and, as Christ said, not one of these “rich” men shall set a foot into Heaven—so why feel miserable? You may say, “They all stand (or fall) together, so why should not we?” That’s just the point, and just the difference between us and them. We stand each many by himself, in the style of Thoreau. (But I will write the foreword if you like, just as I sign my books for people as they like.)¹¹

“XXX” was, of course, Clement Hoyt.

The events of 1963–64 caused a major rift between Hackett and the editors of American Haiku and probably contributed to the souring of his relations with the fledgling American haiku movement in general. Whether at the behest of Hackett or of Hoyt and Bull is not clear, but original haiku by Hackett were never again published in American Haiku—in fact, only one or twice were his haiku even used as examples in essays in the journal.¹²

On the American Haiku side, the animus was not institutional, only personal. Hackett’s Haiku Poetry was mentioned among the recommended books of haiku through the 1964 issues, and a brief but balanced review by Gustave Keyser appeared in issue 3:1 (1965). Keyser wrote: “Mr. Hackett successfully demonstrates that true haiku can be produced in English,” and later, “For the most part, Hackett adheres to the objectivity, clarity, and simplicity he advocates; but sometimes his immersion in Zen mysticism leads him astray into statements marked by cultist subjectivity.”¹³

It was Hackett’s devotion to Zen over haiku that was the crux of the argument between him and the American Haiku editors. Hoyt, himself a haiku and senryu poet and student of Zen for almost 30 years, added fuel to the smoldering fire with a long essay titled “Zen in Haiku,” which, without mentioning Hackett, was clearly aimed at him.¹⁴ The attack was directed at Blyth. Hoyt warned against the fallacy that “weighty” scholarship had come to be understood as “profound” or “authoritative” and pointed out that of the ten books of haiku scholarship that had been published in English by that time, six fat tomes were by Blyth. Blyth’s volumes were heavy with discussions of Zen in haiku, whereas the other scholars—Henderson (two books), Kenneth Yasuda, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science—devoted a few pages at most to the issue and generally took a very measured view of the influence of Zen on haiku and vice versa.

Hoyt’s essay probably followed the general thrust of the letter two years earlier that had upset Hackett and Blyth so much. Hoyt’s attack on Blyth, a man whom Hackett idolized, was surely deeply distressing for the young American.

Essays and Reviews Published in American Haiku
     

Essays

• Adams, Phil. “Line-Units in Haiku.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 13–20.
• Brandt, Harry A. “Try Haikan for Size.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 15.
• Brower, Gary. “A Short History of the Haiku in English.” American Haiku 4.2 (1966), 30–34.
• Bull, James E. “The Authoritarian Syndrome in Haiku.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 56–65.
• Bull, James E. “Color in Haiku.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 18–26.
• Bull, James E. “Haiku Experience vs. Haiku Poem.” American Haiku 4.1 (1966), 42–47.
• Bull, James E. “The House of Illusions.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 30–32.
• Bull, James E. “Los Altos Writers Roundtable.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 7–8.
• Bull, James E., and Gayle Bull “Season Reference in Japanese and American Haiku.” American Haiku 5:1 (1967), 24–41.
• Bull, James E. “Simile and Metaphor in Haiku.” American Haiku 4.2 (1966), 50–54.
• Bull, James E., and Gayle Bull. “Study of Season Reference in American Haiku: Part One.” American Haiku 6:1 (January 1968), 37–61; “Part Two.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 49–61.
• Haney, John S. “The Haiku Evolving.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 37–38.
• Henderson, Harold G. “Comments on Haiku.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 10–12.
• Hoyt, Clement. “The Border Zone Haiku.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 21–31.
• Hoyt, Clement. “Giving a Hokku Party.” American Haiku 4:2 (1966), 6–9.
• Hoyt, Clement. “Haiku and Senryu.” American Haiku 2 (1963), 1–8.
• Hoyt, Clement. “Haiku in Swahili.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 49.
• Hoyt, Clement. “Zen in Haiku.” American Haiku 4.1 (1966), 20–28.
• Johnston, Thomas. “Insight and Awareness in Senryu and Haiku.” American Haiku 3:2 (1965), 56–60.
• Kerr, Walter H. “Rhyme in Haiku.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 53–60.
• Keyser, Gustave. “Let’s Stay with Haiku.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 43–44.
• Keyser, Gustave. “Strong Verbs in Haiku.” American Haiku 4:1 (1966), 6–9.
• Kimura, Akira (Rojin). “Japanese Life in Contemporary Senryu.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 42–49, and 6:1 (January 1968), 5–12.
• Pebworth, Ted-Larry. “Cliches in Haiku.” American Haiku 3:2 (1965), 45–48.
• Pebworth, Ted-Larry. “Weak Verbs in Haiku.” American Haiku 3:2 (1965), 23–25.
• Spiess, Robert. “The Haiku’s Two Dangerous Lines.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 4–10. Presentation at the First Symposium on English-Language Haiku, Wisconsin State University—Platteville, May 16, 1967.
• Spiess, Robert. “Rhythm in Haiku.” American Haiku 3:2 (1965), 7–15.
• Spiess, Robert. “Specific Objects in Haiku.” American Haiku 5:1 (1967), 5–9.
• Spiess, Robert. “Verbless Haiku.” American Haiku 5:1 (1967), 58–61.
• Swayne, Amelia W. “Haiku Structure.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 47.
• Webb, Joyce W. “Haiku and Headlines.” American Haiku 6:1 (January 1968), 13.

Reviews

• “Borrowed Water, by the Los Altos Writers Roundtable, edited by Helen Stiles Chenoweth.” American Haiku 4.2 (1966), 41.
• “Concerning County Seat.” American Haiku 4:2 (1966), 61; and a shortened version in American Haiku 5:2 (1966), 31.
• “Concerning The Heron’s Legs.” American Haiku 4:1 (1966), 57; American Haiku 4:2 (1966), 24; and a shortened version in American Haiku 5:2 (1966), 10.
• “Forever, Never, by Amy K. Blank.” American Haiku 2 (1963), 49.
• “The Gathering Wave, by Alvaro Cardona-Hine.” American Haiku 2 (1963), 49.
• “Haiku Poetry, by J. W. Hackett.” American Haiku 2 (1963), 51.
• “Japanese-American Haiku Tournaments, by Harry A. Brandt.” American Haiku 2 (1963), 49.
• “The Narrow Road to Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, by Basho, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa.” American Haiku 6:1 (January 1968), 14.
• “Plum Blossom Scrolls, by Frank Ankenbrand, Jr.” American Haiku 1 (1963), 60.
• “Twenty-five Haiku, by James Kritzeck.” American Haiku 1 (1963), 60.
• Bull, James E. “Haiku in English, by Harold G. Henderson.” American Haiku 4:1 (1966), 35.
• Bull, James E. “The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History, and Possibilities in English, with Selected Examples, by Kenneth Yasuda.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 26–27.
• Bull, James E. “Oraga haru, by Issa, translated by Nobuyuku Yuasa.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 51.
• Bull, James E. “Spindrift: Poems in Haiku Form, by Sam Bryan.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 46.
• Hoyt, Clement. “Tales from the Japanese Storytellers, collected by Post Wheeler, edited by Harold G. Henderson.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 55.
• Keyser, Gustave. “A Net of Fireflies: Japanese Haiku and Haiku Paintings, by Harold Stewart.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 34.
• Keyser, Gustave. “Dark Earth, by Joyce W. Webb.” American Haiku 3:2 (1965), 34.
• Keyser, Gustave. “Haiku Poetry, by J. W. Hackett.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 27.
• Pebworth, Ted-Larry. “Markings, by Dag Hammarskjöld.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 40.
• Spiess, Robert. “Raising the Moon Vines, by Gerald Robert Vizenor; Seventeen Chirps, by Gerald Robert Vizenor.” American Haiku 4.2 (1966), 15.

Book Notes

• “99801, Juneau, by Phyllis Lesher.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 5.
• “Answer in Bright Green, by Evelyn Thorne.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 62.
• “Borrowed Water, by the Los Altos Writers Roundtable, edited by Helen Stiles Chenoweth.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Echoes on the Wind, by Vicki Silvers.”American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Embers, by Nancy Joyce McDowell.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Haiku Broadsides.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Haiku with Birds, by Pall W. Bohne.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Hints in Haiku: Japan’s Pulse-beat, by Norimoto Iino.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “Letter from Chautauqua, by Marjorie Bertram Smith.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 5.
• “Medley of Reveries, by Isole Townsend Baker.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 5.
• “The Narrow Road to Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, by Basho, translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “New Snow, by Nancy Joyce McDowell.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.
• “One Hundred Views of the Charles River, by Larry Stark.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 62.
• “Return to Lincolnville, by Joyce W. Webb.” American Haiku 6:2 (May 1968), 5.
• “Scroll of Birthday Haiku, by Frank Ankenbrand, Jr.” American Haiku 5:2 (1967), 61.

Editorials & Correspondence

• Bull, James E. “Editorial Statement.” American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 1–3.
• “Dedication.” American Haiku 1 (1963), 1.
• Henderson, Harold G. “letter.” American Haiku 1 (1963), 2–3.
• The Editor [Clement Hoyt]. “Editorial Statement.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 2–3.

Contest Announcements

• “Detroit Haiku Contest.” American Haiku 2:1 (1964), 35.
• “Guide to Haiku Awards.” American Haiku 4:2 (1966), 3.
• “Iris Bowen Wins Arkansas Haiku Contest.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 27.
• “Japan Air Lines National Haiku Contest.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 31–32.
• “Spiess Wins Texas Senzaki Award.” American Haiku 2:2 (1964), 27.

American Haiku Press—Books Published
     

• Baker, Charles. Haiga. Mineral Point, Wis.: American Haiku Publisher, no date [2010]. Woodcuts, engravings, etchings, aquatints, etc., some in color.
• Hoyt, Clement. County Seat. Illustrated by Vern Thompson; designed by Robert Spiess. Platteville, Wis.: American Haiku Press, 1966. 27 titled senryu.
• Southard, O. Marsh-grasses and Other Verses. Platteville, Wis.: American Haiku Press, 1967. Designed by Robert Spiess. 52 haiku.
• Spiess, Robert. The Heron’s Legs. Platteville, Wis.: American Haiku Press, 1966. 54 haiku.

Symposium on English-language Haiku

The 1st Symposium on English-language Haiku, May 16, 1967, was hosted by Wisconsin State University, Platteville (now the University of Wisconsin—Platteville). Clement Hoyt, Robert Spiess, and James and Gayle Bull, all past or current editors of American Haiku, presented papers, which were published in the journal later that year

Sources / Further Reading
     

• American Haiku. Edited by James Bull et al., Platteville, Wis., and Houston, Texas, 1964–1968.
• Bauerly, Donna. Raymond Roseliep: Man of Art Who Loves the Rose. Winchester, Va.: The Haiku Foundation Publications, 2015.
• Blyth, R. H. “Chapter XLII World Haiku,” A History of Haiku. Volume 2: From Issa up to the Present. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1964. 31 haiku by J. W. Hackett on pp. 352–62.
• Hackett, James W. The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett. website: https://hacketthaiku.com.
• Hackett, J. W. Haiku Poetry. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1964; 2nd edition, 1965. 150 haiku.
• Henderson, Harold G. Letter to the editors, American Haiku 1:1 (1964), 2–3.
• Lamb, Elizabeth Searle. “A History of Western Haiku (II) Growth In the 1960’s.” Cicada 3:2 (1979), 3–9. 
• Trumbull, Charles. “The American Haiku Movement—Part I: Haiku in English.” Modern Haiku 36:3 (Autumn 2005), 33–73. Available online in The Haiku Foundation Digital Archive at http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/items/show/1155.
• Trumbull, Charles. “Shangri–La: James W. Hackett’s Life in Haiku, Part One of Two.” Frogpond 33:1 (2010), 80–92. A full version of this three-part article is available online in The Haiku Foundation website: https://thehaikufoundation.org/juxta/juxta-1-1/shangri-la-james-w-hacketts-life-in-haiku/.

Related Haikupedia Articles

American Haiku Awards

1st Symposium on English-language Haiku

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Compiled by the Haikupedia Editors

Adapted from Lamb, “History,” and Trumbull, “American Haiku Movement”

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Notes

1. Harold G. Henderson, Letter to the editors, American Haiku 1:1 (1964), 2–3. [↩]
2. See the Haikupedia article Nick Virgilio. [↩]
3. American Haiku 1:1 (1963), 29. [↩] [↩]
4. American Haiku, 1:2, 1963, 43. [↩]
5. American Haiku 1:1 (1963), 56. [↩]
6. Donna Bauerly, Roseliep’s biographer, writes, citing email communications with Gayle Bull: “[Roseliep] certainly would have gotten word of this seminal publication, but apparently he never met James and Gayle Bull, American Haiku’s founders and editors; he certainly never published any haiku there. To keep things in perspective, however, it should be noted that many other haiku publications of the 1960s and 1970s—for example, Jean Calkins’s Haiku Highlights and Rhoda de Long Jewell’s Janus & SCTH—did not contain Roseliep’s work either. Clearly, he was being selective in where he sent his haiku.” [↩]
7. See Trumbull, “Shangri-La.” [↩]
8. American Haiku 1:1 (1963), 6. [↩]
9. American Haiku 1:1 (1963), 30. [↩]
10. Blyth, 351. [↩]
11. Final Letter from R. H. Blyth to James W. Hackett, April 1964. The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett, website: https://hacketthaiku.com/hacketthaiku/rhb.html. [↩]
12. Not only did Hackett no longer publish in American Haiku, with two small exceptions (17 poems that were included among a collection of 28 haiku in Leroy Kanterman’s Haiku West issues 1:1, 2:1, and 2:1 (1967–69) and three haiku that accompanied an interview with Hackett in Woodnotes 30 [1996]), no new haiku of Hackett’s appeared in any American haiku journal from 1964 on. He did resume publishing in non-American journals in the 1990s, but only after 25 years of silence. ((For full details of this contretemps, see Trumbull, “Shangri-La.” Blyth’s letter is published on the Hackett website. [↩]
13. American Haiku 3:1 (1965), 27. [↩]
14. American Haiku 4:1 (1966), 20–28. [↩]