Further Reading
Always more to read! Graceguts focuses mostly on writing by Michael Dylan Welch, chiefly about haiku and other poetry. However, this page mostly promotes writing by others, reproduced on this site by permission of their authors, where possible, or linked to on other sites. For essays by Michael Dylan Welch, see the Essays page. See also “Selected Essays and Interviews from Woodnotes” for 34 mostly additional pieces by other writers.
Haiku Fundamentals
I particularly recommend the following content by other writers for anyone interested in the fundamentals of haiku poetry, especially regarding haiku form: +
Forms in English Haiku by Keiko Imaoka
Haiku Lessons by Alison Williams
What Is a Haiku—And What Isn’t by John J. Dunphy
Haiku by the Numbers, Seriously by William J. Higginson
An Introduction to Haiku and Senryu for New Haiku and Senryu Poets by Curtis Dunlap
Haiku Without Counting by Al McDermid
How to Write a Bad Haiku by KrisL
How to Write a Haiku by Naomi Beth Wakan
How to Write a Poem by Edith Bartholomeusz
About Haiku by Patrick Gillespie
Haiku Are Not a Joke: A Plea from a Poet Who Has Had It Up to Here by Sandra Simpson
Transplanting the Haiku by Donna Eisenstat
Learning to Write Haiku: A Teacher’s Guide by Katherine Raine
Some Notes on Writing Haiku by Rob Taylor
Tontoism in American Haiku by Paul O. Williams
The Question of Articles in Haiku by Paul O. Williams
Engineered Serendipity: Epistolary Haiku by Paul O. Williams
Engagement and Detachment in Haiku and Senryu by Paul O. Williams
Haiku and the Art of Fiction by Paul O. Williams
Loafing Alertly: Observation and Haiku by Paul O. Williams
A Pre-Electronic View of the World by Paul O. Williams
Preface to The Edge of the Woods by Paul O. Williams
For those new to haiku, also consider reading Jane Reichhold’s Bare Bones School of Haiku for step-by-step lessons that will give you a good introduction to various challenges in writing haiku (be aware that some of the links in its resources section are out of date). For an overview of haiku from a British perspective (but still relevant worldwide), please visit Haiku: Another Kind of Poetry. For children and teachers, I also recommend visiting Johnette Downing’s Two Dragonfiles site (now available only through the archived site linked to here). For more on the fundamentals of the sounds (not syllables) counted in Japanese haiku, and the genre’s history, see Japanese Prosody, Haiku, and Haiku in English on Wikipedia.
For a discerning discussion on the problem of pseudo-haiku and the love/hate relationship one might have with different kinds of haiku (that is, literary haiku versus mere syllable-counting), listen to Jacke Wilson’s 25 July 2022 podcast “On Matsuo Bashō, Haiku’s Greatest Master” (the haiku part gets going with 48:40 remaining in the podcast).
Advanced Haiku
For more advanced haiku writers, I recommend the following content:
Beyond the Haiku Moment: Bashō, Buson, and Modern Haiku Myths by Haruo Shirane
Toward an Aesthetic for English-Language Haiku by Lee Gurga
Haiku as Poetic Spell by Martin Lucas (with my commentary in a postscript)
Leaping the Chasm: An Interview with Virginia Brady Young by vincent tripi
Magic–Mystery–Music: The Persistence of 5–7–5 in Haiku by Charles Trumbull
Haiku by Alan Watts (with my commentary in annotations)
The Honkadori Revisited: Have I Read this Before? Déjà vu in Haiku by Hans Jongman
Review of A Haiku Path by Ce Rosenow
Some Notes on Haiku Moments and Prepositions by Cor van den Heuvel
A Concise History of Haibun in English by Cor van den Heuvel
Why I Write Haibun by Rich Youmans
The “Zeugmatic Effect” by Charles B. Dickson
Asian Topics page by Columbia University
My Essays on Fundamentals and Haiku Form
For context or further assistance, if you haven’t already read my introductory essays on writing haiku in English, please visit the following pages:
Haiku Seeds (for school children)
Notes on Japanese Forms (definitions of haiku, senryu, haibun, haiga, rengay, renku, and tanka)
Why “No 5-7-5” (on my NaHaiWriMo website) +
See also Recommended Books on Haiku and A Survey of English-Language Haiku Activity. Also try exploring additional essays on my Essays page, and essays by other writers on “Selected Essays and Interviews from Woodnotes.” See additional haiku links on the Links page.
If you have any comments or questions, please contact Michael Dylan Welch.