The following two shortened bio sketches may be used for publicity purposes. See a longer bio. For head shots or other publicity photos, please contact Michael Dylan Welch.

Haiku Emphasis

Michael Dylan Welch has been investigating haiku and related poetry since 1976. This has included writing haiku very badly (with titles, even) for twelve years, discovering literary haiku in 1988, buying thousands of haiku books, joining haiku groups and organizations and often being an officer, starting to teach haiku and writing hundreds of essays and reviews about haiku, founding his haiku publishing endeavor, Press Here, in 1989, cofounding the Haiku North America conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996, and founding the Tanka Society of America in 2000, the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in 2008, and National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com) in 2010. Over the years Michael has won first prize in numerous contests for haiku and related poetry, edited and written dozens of poetry books, and spoken at many literary conferences and retreats. He has balanced his haiku investigations with the study of longer poetry by receiving an MA in English, serving two terms as poet laureate of Redmond, Washington, curating two poetry reading series since 2006 and 2008, and teaching for an MFA program and at local schools and libraries. Michael was keynote speaker for the 2013 Haiku International Association annual convention in Japan (which he visits often with his Japanese wife), had one of his haiku engraved in stone in New Zealand in 2000, and one of his translations printed on the back of 150,000,000 postage stamps in 2012. In 2009, Michael started his website, www.graceguts.com, where he continues to collect and share his published writing. He was born in England, and was raised there and in Ghana, Australia, and Canada. Michael continues to investigate haiku where he now lives in Sammamish, Washington. He also practices giving back to the poetry community through conscientious literary citizenship.

General Poetry Emphasis