Format: Not live (asynchronous). Participants work individually on written assignments and tutor feedback is sent as a group email, for shared learning.
Level: Intermediate haiku writers; haiku improvers; beginners at haiku who are otherwise very experienced in creative writing.
No. of Assignments and Feedback: 4
Group Size: up to 6
Course Description: This is our longest running course. It is suitable for those with some experience of either creative writing or haiku already, as it is quite advanced and the feedback quite technical, but it's still welcoming and inclusive. Participants submit two haiku poems four times over the course (total 8 poems over two and a half months) and may also add three rewritten poems for final comments during that time. Each session's prompts are accessed online. Feedback is sent by email, with participants reading Alan's commentary on each others' poems as well as their own in a group learning process.
Lead Tutor for haiku; tanka; haibun; senryu; and tanka stories.
Alan is a Japan Times award-winning writer, and multi-award winning poet for haiku, plus a Pushcart Prize, and Best Small Fictions nominated poet for haibun.
He’s been President of the United Haiku & Tanka Society (2017 to 2021), and General Secretary of the British Haiku Society (1998-2000).
Alan holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University (U.K. 2007-2008), and a Diploma for Creative Writing from the University of Bristol (U.K. 2000-2001).
In September 2015 NHK TV of Japan made a documentary about Alan's work: http://tinyurl.com/NHKHaikuJourney
Alan’s work regularly appears in haikai genre journals, and prominent anthologies, including Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W. W. Norton 2013).
He has extensive experience as a tutor and workshop facilitator in both live and online settings. Alongside this he’s also an experienced editor for anthologies and journals. Alan’s been an essayist, article writer, critic, book reviewer, international competition judge, co-founder, and founder of various haiku & haibun journals.
Alan is currently editor-in-chief for The Haiku Reader anthology series, and opened with the first presentation at the Haiku Society of America’s 2022 National Virtual Conference (Saturday, June 4, 2022) taking questions about the anthology.
Course now postponed till later in 2024