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Haiku In English: The First Hundred Years

The first anthology to map the full range of haiku in the English tradition.Haiku in English is an anthology of more than 800 brilliantly chosen poems that were originally written in English by over 200 poets from around the world. Although haiku originated as a Japanese art form, it has found a welcome home in the English-speaking world. This collection tells the story for the first time of Anglophone haiku, charting its evolution over the last one hundred years and placing it within its historical and literary context. It features an engaging introduction by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins and an insightful historical overview by leading haiku poet, editor, and publisher Jim Kacian. The selections range from the first fully realized haiku in English, Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” to plentiful examples by haiku virtuosos such as John Wills, Marlene Mountain, Nick Virgilio, and Raymond Roseliep, and to investigations into the genre by eminent poets like John Ashbery, Allen Ginsberg, and Seamus Heaney. The editors explore the genre’s changing forms and themes, highlighting its vitality and its breadth of poetic styles and content. Among the many poems on offer are organic form experiments by E. E. Cummings and Michael McClure, evocations of black culture by Richard Wright and Sonia Sanchez, and the seminal efforts of Jack Kerouac.

Paperback: 464 pages

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (January 25, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0393348873

ISBN-13: 978-0393348873

Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.2 x 7.1 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #680,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #107 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Japanese & Haiku #282 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Asian #974 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Anthologies

It seems almost churlish to point out negative aspects in a W.W. Norton book when we of the haiku community are so very thankful to have them notice our efforts and to make such a large, and attractive, anthology as Haiku in English. However, since it seems no one else is going to post the issues that are causing dismay among us, here are some of them so you, reader and buyer, can decide what to think.1. Of the 236 authors in Haiku in English, only 23% of them are female. The percentage falls to 16% when one counts the number of haiku by women against the total. This is far from reality because there are actually about the same number of active female haiku writers as male.2. The number of one-line haiku in the book, which Kacian favors and fosters, is far above the number currently being published at any one time. In addition many of the one-line choices are questionable haiku being that they are simply run-on sentences.3. There is no section for further reading for persons newly won to haiku. No lists of web sites, magazines, or how-to books except the few buried in the biographies of males.4. The book only addresses the single haiku; there is no mention of the wider haiku activity in collaboration with other genres of poetry, prose, art, and other symbiotic poetry. This causes a narrow and diminished view of the future of haiku in English.5. The Editor-in-Chief, Jim Kacian, has chosen to publish a very narrow selection of haiku leaving out the best-written and best-known contemporary writers. His choices concentrate on East Coast writers or friends such as his two other editors. He actually admits that his goal was to publish haiku that fit his agenda and not the best being written.6.

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