Join the JASWDC Haiku Group!

led by haiku poet and author, Abigail Friedman

Experience the beauty of haiku and hone your haiku-writing skills at the Japan-America Society of Washington DC Haiku Group. This haiku group, or kukai, provides a platform for writers of haiku to come together and develop their craft in a fun, friendly atmosphere. Following a format similar to that of some Japanese haiku groups, participants will bring to the session three haiku poems in English that they have written beforehand.  The group then shares each haiku anonymously around the room without critique. Following this, each participant will select their favorites among all they have read on that day. As for the rest, come to the group to find out!

Led by esteemed haiku poet and author Abigail Friedman, the group meets once every two months. More details on how a kukai functions will be explained at the group itself.

The group will meet at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, located at 901 G St. NW, Washington, DC 20001:

Date: Saturday, March 30th

Time: 2:30 – 4:30 pm (EST)

Location: 401-E Conference Room, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Schedule and requirements:

Haiku theme: The Sounds of Spring

Number of Haiku: Bring three English-language haiku you have composed

SCHEDULE

2:30-3:30 pm: Anonymous sharing of haiku

3:30-3:50 pm: break (Marianne’s café by DC Central Kitchen, on 1^st floor of library)

3:50-4:30 pm: A conversation on Seasonality in Haiku.

This talk will explore the ways in which the use of seasonality in haiku has evolved in Japan and in the west, and how we might, as haiku poets writing in English, consider the use of seasonality in our own work. 

Participants are encouraged (but not required) to include elements of sound associated with the spring season in the three haiku compositions that they bring to the workshop.

Although this event is free, participants are asked to register in advance so that we have a sense of the number of attendees and can email participants in the event of last-minute changes.