Michael Smeer (born Michael Paul Smeer, June 2, 1963, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; known by his haigō Mikō), has college degrees in software engineering and had formal training in music and several instruments. He has worked as a web application engineer, haikai tutor, and editor. He has been publishing poetry, principally in English, since 1993 and turned to haikai in 2014. His work has appeared in international journals including Blithe Spirit, Prune Juice, Hedgerow, Cattails, A Hundred Gourds, and The Mamba as well as in the British Haiku Society members’ anthologies. Mikō is founder, administrator, and tutor for the My Haiku Pond community and its Academy on Facebook, and he has published six ebooks by community members. Mikō is a member of the BHS and an honorary member of the Africa Haiku Network; earlier (2015–2016) he served as a vice president of the short-lived European Haiku Society. He resides in Hoofddorp, North Holland.
Note: This is an abstract of a longer biographical article to come.