Haiku Anthology:
Second International Haiku Conference

Antologia Haiku: Druga Międznarodowa Konferencja Haiku / Haiku Anthology: Second International Haiku Conference, edited by Robert Kania, Krzysztof Kokot, Lidia Rozmus, and Charles Trumbull (2015, Museum Manggha, Kraków, Poland). 60 pages, 4¾×8 inches, perfectbound. ISBN 978-83-62564-92-7. In Polish, English, and contributing poets’ languages. $10.00 from Lidia Rozmus at lidiarozmus@att.net.

Collections such as this may be of primary interest to those who attended the conference in Poland, but for those who pay attention to international haiku, it’s worthwhile perusing this book to see who attended from North America and elsewhere, and to see who many of the leading poets are in Poland, with samples of their work. One message that events and anthologies like this present is that the lingua franca of worldwide haiku poetry is English—this book is in Polish and English, with the addition of other languages if the poet writes in another language. The book showcases 47 poems, one per attendee (selected from five submitted poems), by poets from Australia (1), Bulgaria (7), Croatia (4), Denmark (1), Germany (2), Hungary (1), Japan (2), Lithuania (2), Poland (15), Romania (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1), The Netherlands (3), Ukraine (1), United Kingdom (2), and the United States (6) (the totals here exceed 47 because several poets listed more than one country). How many North American haiku gatherings are as diverse as this? World haiku is alive and well. “Lovers’ bench— / our initials / hardly visible” —Slawa Sibiga