Join the JASWDC Haiku Group!

led by haiku poet and author, Abigail Friedman

Experience the beauty of haiku and hone your haiku-writing skills at the Japan-America Society of Washington DC Haiku Group. This haiku group, or kukai, provides a platform for writers of haiku to come together and develop their craft in a fun, friendly atmosphere. Following a format similar to that of Japanese haiku groups, participants will bring to the session three haiku poems in English that they have written beforehand.  The group then shares each haiku anonymously around the room without critique. Following this, each participant will select their favorites among all they have read on that day. As for the rest, come to the group to find out!

Led by esteemed haiku poet and author Abigail Friedman, the group meets once every two months. More details on how a kukai functions will be explained at the group itself.

The group will meet at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, located at 901 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20001: 

REGISTER HERE!

Date: Saturday, January 13th

Time: 2:30 – 4:30 pm (EST)

Location: 401-F Conference Room, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Schedule and requirements:

Haiku theme: (optional) Winter or the New Year haiku

Number of Haiku: Bring three English-language haiku you have composed

SCHEDULE

2:30-3:30 pm: Anonymous sharing of haiku
3:30-3:50 pm: break (Marianne’s café by DC Central Kitchen, on 1st floor of library)
3:50-4:30 pm: Guest presentation from Professor Brendan Morley, Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at George Washington University – Topic: “In the Twilight of Tradition: Haiku and Classical Japanese Poetics”

Of all Japanese poetic forms to arise prior to the 19th century, haiku has been the most stylistically capacious and the most successful in bridging the artistic chasm otherwise seen to divide premodern from modern Japanese literature.
Many stylistic linkages between haiku and classical poetry can indeed be found, yet haiku are seldom “neoclassical” in orientation: an appreciation of them does not typically require explicit reference to the classical canon.
This talk will explore the ways in which older poetic sensibilities might usefully inform our reading of haiku, as well as the ways in which an encounter with haiku might reshape our apprehension of the classical tradition.

Although this event is free, participants are asked to register in advance so that we have a sense of the number of attendees and can email participants in the event of last-minute changes.