Evergreen Haiku Study Group

Sat, February 20, 2021 1:00 PM - Sat, February 20, 2021 3:00 PM at Virtual

The spring 2021 edition of the Evergreen Haiku Study Group, led by Michele Root-Bernstein, is taking place virtually. No matter your experience, you're invited to attend any or all of these monthly gatherings to explore and expand your knowledge of haiku in all its forms.

To request the Zoom information and to learn more, e-mail evergreenhaiku@gmail.com.

The February 2021 meeting includes a visit with special guest Patricia J. Machmiller, haiku poet, artist, essayist, and long-time member of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society in northern California, who will give a reading of her haiku—

 snow moon—
the light from without
the light from within

 —and drawing from her recent book, Zigzag of the Dragonfly, Writing the Haiku Way, she’ll also talk with us about the power of kigo, or season words, as a powerful poetic device in haiku composition.

Monthly study group activities include read-arounds, aesthetic explorations, craft exercises, writing time, anonymous kukai, collaborative play, and other forms of shared appreciation for one of the smallest poetic forms on the planet. Over the course of the year we plan to bring in a haiku poet or two for readings and workshops and to explore related haiku arts such as haibun (prose/poem), haiga (picture/poem), and book-making. All are welcome regardless of experience level.

About Michele Root-Bernstein: Michele Root-Bernstein took her first stab at haiku in the late 1990s, but it was not until 2005, the year she joined the Haiku Society of America (HSA) that she began to study the form seriously and to publish in haiku journals and anthologies. A selection of her poetry appeared in A New Resonance 6 in 2009. In recent years she has placed in haiku and haibun contests, winning second prize in the HSA Haibun Awards competition in 2012, and first prize in the same HSA competition in 2015. She occasionally presents a haiku-dance workshop developed in association with the Kennedy Center partners in Education program. She served as associate editor of Frogpond, the journal of the HSA, from 2012 through 2015. In her other life, Michele is an independent scholar in creativity studies associated with Michigan State University, co-author of Sparks of Genius, The 13 Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People, and author of Inventing Imaginary Worlds: From Childhood Play to Adult Creativity Across the Arts and Sciences.