2024 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.
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. See the 18 January 2024 Lincoln County Leader newspaper story about this workshop.
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/X. The recording also appears 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.
8 February 2024: Submission deadline for the 2024 ukiaHaiku Festival haiku contest, for which I’m judging the international category.
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. + +
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.
14 April 2024: “The Joy of Haiku” workshop at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival’s “Sakura Days Japan Fair,” VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, British Columbia. 1:00 p.m. at the Experience Japan Tent. Free with festival admission. +
17 April 2024 (International Haiku Poetry Day): Featured poet, presenting a selection of my haiga, for the Haiku Society of America Washington regional meeting, “Focus on Washington.” 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., free on Zoom. Other presenters are David Berger, John Burgess, Emily Kane, David Lasky, Dorothy Avery Matthews, Carole MacRury, Sally Penley, petro ck, Susan Roberts, Sheila Sondik, and Ann Spiers, hosted by HSA regional coordinator Richard Tice.
19 April 2024: My “Something Fishy” rengay with C. R. Manley and Tanya McDonald featured on the Rattle website, with an audio recording.
28 April 2024: Judging the international category of the 2024 ukiaHaiku Festival contest (submission deadline, 8 February 2024). Results announced at 2:00 p.m. today at the Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue in Ukiah, California, free (I won’t be present, but my commentary will be shared).
11 May 2024: Leading an ekphrastic haiku workshop for Haiku Northwest at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. Guided tour at 11:00 a.m., lunch at noon, and then the ekphrastic workshop at 1:00 p.m. Free.
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. See Facebook event.
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. Free to enter. Winners announced on 29–30 June 2024 during the Japan Fair at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 NE 6th Street in Bellevue, Washington.
14 June 2024: Added to the 2024–2026 Public Art Roster for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. See my listing and the entire list of hundreds of approved artists.
18 June 2024: ONLINE. “Haiku Targets” fundraiser workshop for One Art, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. $25. Please register on the One Art website.
25 June 2024: “Forest Bathing and the Art of Haiku” presentation at the Kirkland Library, 308 Kirkland Avenue in Kirkland, Washington. 6:00 p.m. Free (no registration required). +
29 June 2024: “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. The workshop will be held at from 1:00 to 1:45 p.m. The haiku contest winners will be announced by festival organizers at 2:30 p.m. on 30 June on the main stage.
31 July 2024: Submission period ends for First Frost, the haiku journal I coedit with Eric Burke, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, and Dale Wisely.
9 August 2024: Cohosting (with Garry Gay, Sherry Grant, and Zoe Grant) the 32nd Rengay Birthday reading (open reading of rengay). Register by 7 August 2024 by emailing rainingrengay@gmail.com.
10 August 2024: Leading a rengay workshop as part of the Haiku Northwest quarterly meeting, Lake Hills Greenbelt Garden Shelter, 15500 SE 16th Street, Bellevue, Washington. Meeting runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., with the rengay session starting at 1:00 p.m. Free.
29 August 2024: ONLINE. Private “Haiku Targets” workshop for the Not the Rodeo Poets critique group and Women and Poetry in Daily Living (Lifetime Learning Center). 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Zoom.
31 August 2024: Submission deadline for the sixth annual Morioka International Haiku Contest in Morioka, Japan, which I’m cojudging with Toshio Kimura. The award ceremony will be held at Morioka Gekijo (Main Hall) in Morioka on 16 November. See the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 results and commentary, with Japanese translations.
4 September 2024: Featured poet at the Postmark Center for the Arts, 20 Auburn Avenue, Auburn, WA 98002, hosted by Auburn Avenue Poets. 6:00 p.m. sign-up, reading at 6:30 p.m. Free. See Facebook event.
8 September 2024: “Even in Kyoto” presentation and workshop for the San Diego Haiku Group, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., free, for members only.
12–13 September 2024: Judging a free haiku contest each night at the Seattle Japanese Garden Moon Viewing Festival (tickets available for Thursday, September 12 and Friday, September 13; also see the Events and Calendar pages), 7:00 p.m. ($35 admission fee). See the garden website.
19 September 2024: Featured reading for the “Read Local Eat Local” poetry event sponsored by the Redmond poet laureate, Ching-In Chen, and the Redmond Arts and Culture Commission. I’ll be reading my “Five Food Haiku” poetry postcard, one of 30 to be distributed at various Redmond restaurants and other businesses in September. This reading is part of the 2024 Downtown Redmond Art Walk (DRAW). Buoyant Pavilion in Redmond’s Downtown Park from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. Free.
21 September 2024: ONLINE. “Haiku Targets” workshop for the Arizona State Poetry Society, on Zoom. 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. $20 for members, $25 for nonmembers. Please register at the ASPS website.
24 September 2024: “Forest Bathing and the Art of Haiku” presentation at the Sammamish Library, 825 228th Avenue SE in Sammamish, Washington. 6:30 p.m. Free (registration encouraged but not required). See Facebook event. +
28 September 2024: One of 20 featured readers at the Museum of Northwest Art, 121 1st Street, La Conner, Washington. 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Free, but a $15 suggested donation is requested for museum access.
1–31 October 2024: Traffic Culture Exhibition 2024 (through a virtual gallery online instead of at Ueno Station in Tokyo, Japan this year, due to station renovations), featuring my translations with Emiko Miyashita of train-related haiku contest winners, including commentary by the judge, Kai Hasegawa. +
3–5 October 2024: Featured as the Robert Sund Memorial Poet in the 2024 Skagit River Poetry Festival in La Conner, Washington. Other featured poets include Ellen Bass, Elizabeth Bradfield, Lorna Crozier, Tony Curtis, Samuel Green, Holly Hughes, Gary Copeland Lilley, Tim McNulty, Susan Rich, Derek Sheffield, Arthur Sze, and Robert Wrigley, among many others, including dynamic poets less known to me, such as Chen Chen, CMarie Fuhrman, Carol Moldaw, Tawanda Mulalu, and M.L. Smoker. +
8 October 2024: Announcing and commenting on haiku winners in the Iowa Poetry Association’s 79th annual Lyrical Iowa contest, for which I served as the haiku judge. 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Free on Zoom.
10–13 October 2024: Competing in the Inland Empire Pro/Am Racquetball Tournament, at the Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside in Spokane, Washington. Also competing, at the pro level, is Kane Waselenchuk, the most dominant player in racquetball history, and other top pros. [I won third place in my age division.]
18 October 2024: ONLINE. “Haiku Targets” workshop for attendees of the 2024 Seabeck Haiku Getaway, on Zoom. 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
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.” My presentation is “We Are Still Not Free: Color Unity in Richard Wright’s Haiku.” See the website link for details, and please join us! +
31 October 2024: Haiku submission period ends for Pulse, for which I serve as haiku editor.
14 November 2024: Featured reader for the “It's About Time Writers Reading Series” at the Ballard Library, 5614 22nd Ave NW in Seattle. 6:00 to 7:45 p.m. Free. Reading with Sybil James and Carla Granat. See Facebook event.
16 November 2024: Award ceremony for the sixth annual Morioka International Haiku Contest at Morioka Gekijo (Main Hall) in Morioka, Japan, which I’m cojudging with Toshio Kimura. August 31 is the submission deadline. See the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 results and commentary, with Japanese translations.
21 November 2024: Reading at SoulFood Poetry Night in celebration of the Haiku Northwest 35th anniversary anthology, Glimmering Hour, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., SoulFood CoffeeHouse, 15748 Redmond Way in Redmond, Washington. $5.00 admission fee. [This reading was cancelled due to our bomb cyclone and power failures; reading rescheduled to 16 January 2025.]