Format: Not live (asynchronous). Participants work individually on written assignments and tutor feedback is sent to the group as a whole, for shared learning.
Level: This course is designed to be gentle enough for complete beginners (at haiku, or at creative writing), but at the same time stimulating enough to introduce haiku as a new form to those who are already writing poetry or prose. Or perhaps you already know about haiku, but want to ease into studying it more seriously. It can also be used as a haiku "warm-up" or for "back to what we first loved about haiku" for writers who would enjoy a reset. A highly pleasurable course to run, and we trust, take part in!
No of Assignments and Feedback: 3
Group Size: up to 8
Course Description: Participants are sent introductory materials on the start date, which will include the first assignment briefing. We'll engage with haiku as a reader, using gentle and evocative prose exercises to expand our understanding of what these tiny haiku can do. As the course continues, we'll consciously encourage our own senses of observation, and learn to key in to moments and observations that inspire haiku. By the third and final assignment (or sooner if you are ready) we'll have built up to writing complete haiku poems. There'll be feedback from the tutors on the prose exercises, line exercises, and the complete poems, in a safe and nurturing atmosphere. By the end of the course you should have three poems, and an inspiring foundation on which to move forward with your writing.
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.