The Shortest Distance

The 1993 Haiku North America conference took place July 15 to 18, 1993, at Las Positas College in Livermore, California. The conference anthology, The Shortest Distance, features 51 poems by conference attendees, edited and introduced by Ebba Story and Michael Dylan Welch, with a cover photograph by Garry Gay.

Explore the book

• Read the introduction

• Read selected poems

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1993, saddle-stapled, 20 pages, 5½ x 8½ inches, ISBN 978-1-878798-11-1

• “Two poets sit on a bench together to share a favorite poem. Nearby, another poet touches the delicate edge of a newly fallen leaf. Inside a classroom, more poets listen attentively to an impassioned talk on the art of haiku. This is the essence of Haiku North America, a literary, educational, and social celebration of haiku and related forms of poetry. . . . We are normally separated by spatial and temporal distance. As we gather to share and celebrate our involvement with haiku, that distance dissolves. We are drawn together over the shortest distance—shorter even than the written forms we cherish. We meet in the moment where hearts and minds open and rejoice. There is no distance here.” —from the introduction