Appearances
Selected readings, workshops, and other appearances are listed here. In addition, I curate and MC SoulFood Poetry Night (see YouTube for past live-streams) in Redmond, Washington (third Thursday of each month at SoulFood CoffeeHouse), and the Redmond Association of Spokenword readings (last Friday night of each month at Centro Cultural Mexicano in Redmond). I also participate in monthly meetings of the Haiku Northwest group (second Thursday of most months, plus quarterly weekend meetings in 2024). Also see selected previous event photos below the following calendar, or visit the Workshops page to learn more about the various workshops and presentations I can provide. To schedule a poetry reading, workshop, lecture, or presentation, please contact me.
—Michael Dylan Welch
Now — 2024
Upcoming events: I have numerous workshops, presentations, and readings slated for 2024, and I’ll post information about them as soon as they’re confirmed. Some of these events are online, usually on Zoom, as indicated. Keeping up appearances!
Every two weeks in 2024 (starting 12 January): Serving as 2024 guest haiku editor for Pulse: Voices from the Heart of Medicine, with selected healthcare-themed poems appearing every other Friday throughout 2024. See the Staff page.
16 January 2024: ONLINE. “How to Haiku” workshop via Zoom for the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association, Camden, New Jersey. Free! 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Please register here [link to come].
20 January 2024: ONLINE. “Haiku Targets” Zoom workshop for Willamette Writers. 2:00 to 3:30 p.m., free to anyone. Click to register or visit the Events page on the Willamette Writers website.
24 January 2024: “Forest Bathing and the Art of Haiku” presentation for Sammamish Seniors at Beaver Lake Lodge in Sammamish. Meeting runs from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., with my presentation from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Free for seniors (50+), but please register.
February 2024: Coordinating the fourteenth annual National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo) and providing daily writing prompts on the NaHaiWriMo page on Facebook, with more than 3,900 followers. Please join us in writing at least one haiku a day in the month of February—the shortest month of the year for the shortest genre of poetry! +
1 February 2024: Guest on “The Poetry Space” with Timothy Greene and Katie Dozier, discussing plagiarism in poetry, including deja-ku. 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. on Twitter. The recording will also appear on Spotify.
4 February 2024: Award ceremony for the 2023 Fujisan Tanka Contest, in which a tanka of mine won a special Foreign Language Tanka Excellence Award. Held at Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo, Japan.
5 February 2024: Submission period ends for First Frost, the haiku journal I coedit with Eric Burke, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, and Dale Wisely.
28 February 2024: Submission deadline for the Iowa Poetry Association’s 79th annual Lyrical Iowa contest, which includes a haiku category that I'm judging. See submission guidelines and judges’ bios.
16 March 2024: ONLINE. “Haiku Joy: Celebrating Francine Porad” presentation for the Southern California Haiku Study Group. Free. 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Zoom (my presentation will be during the first hour).
5 April 2024: Featured reader in the 2024 “Ars Poetica” collaborative art and poetry installation at the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN), 8890 Three Tree Lane NE, Bainbridge Island, Washington. 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., free. My poem, “The Clarinet,” displayed with artwork by glass artist Sandy Schlyer.
6 April 2024: ONLINE. Free “Haiku Targets” workshop sponsored by Tennessee Poets, also recorded for WC-TV television broadcast later in April 2024. 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Click to register. +
12 April 2024: My “Something Fishy” rengay with C. R. Manley and Tanya McDonald featured on the Rattle website, with an audio recording.
13 April 2024: Featured poet, with Nancy Pagh, in the Madrona Poetry Series at Pelican Bay Books, at 520 Commercial Avenue in Anacortes, Washington. Free. 7:00 p.m. Music by an artist to be announced.
15 May 2024: ONLINE. Free “Haiku Targets” workshop for Bellevue, Washington’s 2024 Japan Fair, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Click here to register [link to come]. See Facebook event [link to come].
18 May 2024: Featured reader at Tsuga Fine Art, 10101 Main Street in Bothell, Washington. Plus an open-mic reading. 7:00 p.m. Free.
31 May 2024: Submission deadline for Bellevue, Washington’s fourth annual Japan Fair community haiku contest that I’m judging. Read submission instructions and enter your haiku here [link to come]. Free to enter. Winners announced on 29–30 June 2024 during the Japan Fair at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE 6th Street in Bellevue, Washington.
29–30 June 2024: Shikishi exhibit and short lecture, “How to Haiku in English” workshop, and announcement of 2024 haiku contest winners at the Japan Fair, Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE 6th Street in Bellevue, Washington. Free. My exhibit and short lecture is titled “Touching the Moon: Twenty-Four Shikishi” and is based on my essay of the same name. The workshop, shikishi presentation, and the announcement of the haiku contest winners will be held at times to be announced.
31 July 2024: Submission period ends for First Frost, the haiku journal I coedit with Eric Burke, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, and Dale Wisely.
24–27 October 2024: Directing Haiku Northwest’s seventeenth annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway in-person at the Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, Washington. Our featured guest is Crystal Simone Smith, and our theme is “Maps.” See the website link for details (more to come), and please join us!
Then — 2009 to 2023
Selected Event Photos
“Haiku Targets” presentation at the Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver British Columbia, 20 March 2006, as part of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (for which I’ve served as a judge and consultant for numerous years).
Delivering my keynote speech at the November 2013 Haiku International Association annual convention in Tokyo.
Audience view of my keynote speech at the November 2013 Haiku International Association annual convention in Tokyo.
Showing off my “I Heart Haiku” T-shirt after giving my keynote speech at the November 2013 Haiku International Association annual convention in Tokyo.
Teaching haiku to fourth graders at Cherry Crest Elementary School in Bellevue, Washington on 7 May 2009.
Teaching collaborative writing at the Poetry Yurt on Gabriola Island, British Columbia on 23 July 2013.
Teaching haiku at the Sakura Days Japan Fair at VanDusen Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia on 6 April 2013.
Facilitating the Ekphrastic Assimilations writing workshop at VALA Art Center in Redmond, Washington, on 16 September 2016.
“Becoming a Haiku Poet” workshop at Seattle Chōeizan Enkyōji Nichiren Buddhist Temple in Seattle on 19 May 2012.
Teaching my “Haiku Targets” class at LitFuse in Yakima, Washington, 24 September 2023.
Chatting with children’s book author Deb Lund at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference on 28 February 2008. I’ve given workshops and readings at this conference on haiku and longer poetry as well as all-day seminars on haiku and on “Microsoft Word for Poets and Novelists.”
Participating in a panel discussion on haiku poet Nicholas Virgilio (with Raffael de Gruttola and Kathleen O’Toole) at the 2009 Haiku North America conference at the National Library of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario, 6 August 2009.
Haiku reading at the Japanese Garden, Seattle, Washington, 29 June 2008, for the “Haiku Day” at the garden, sponsored by the Haiku Society of America and Seattle Parks and Recreation. +
Serving as MC for the national Haiku Society of America meeting at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, 26 June 2010.
Haiku reading at the “Found in Translation” exhibition at the TORA Gallery, in Mount Vernon, Washington, with koto accompaniment by Elizabeth Falconer, 20 November 2005.
Haiku performance with members of the Haiku Northwest group (left to right: Michael Dylan Welch, Marilyn Sandall, William Scott Galasso, and Connie Hutchison, with guitar accompaniment by Dejah Léger, not shown) at the Northwest Folklife Festival, 26 May 2008.
You can listen to a recording of the Haiku Northwest Folklife performance of May 2005.
Welcoming speech for the 2004 Poets in the Park conference, at Clise Mansion in Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington. I founded and directed this conference, which I directed again in 2005 and revived in 2014 (ongoing since then).
Teaching haiku for Camp Fire USA on Bainbridge Island, 15 March 2008.
Featured reading at Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip, Washington, 2 May 2019. The reading took place in the longhouse.
Welcoming speech at the 2011 Haiku North America conference, on 4 August 2011 at Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington.
“Calling All Poets” reading (me with Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken), Sammamish Library, 2 April 2013.
Staffing the haiku table at the 2014 moon viewing festival at the Seattle Japanese Garden. I have judged an annual haiku contest at this annual festival for many years.
As Redmond poet laureate, I began a presentation series called “Poets Wanted: Dead or Alive,” featuring the poetry of famous poets. This presentation on Rumi took place at the library in Redmond, Washington, on 10 February 2014.
Directing the annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway at the Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, Washington, October 2017.
Television interview on 15 April 2018 about the Sakura Days Japan Festival at VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver, British Columbia, at which I’ve given numerous readings and workshops, led haiku walks, and judged haiku contests since the inception of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival in 2006.
Leading a haiku workshop for the Sakura Days Japan Festival at VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Writing instant haiku at Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond, Washington for Independent Bookstore Day on 28 April 2018.
Staffing the haiku table on 13 September 2019 with Michelle Schaefer at the annual Moon Viewing event at the Seattle Japanese Garden. [photo by SlickPix Photography]
Linda Poole, executive director of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, introduces me to lead a haiku workshop at the Vancouver Public Library, 28 April 2019.
Staffing my haiku book table in the Haiku Hut at the Sakura Days Japan Festival, VanDusen Botanical Garden, 15 April 2018.
Chalk haiku at VanDusen Botanical Garden, April 2016.
Directing the Seabeck Haiku Getaway, via Zoom, October 2020.