Hawaii/Pacific Region
This region includes Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The Hawaii/Pacific region may have small HSA membership numbers but makes up for it with a distinctive geography influenced by the strong presence of Japanese culture throughout the region. For about thirty years Darold D. Braida and others organized the Hawaii Education Association’s annual haiku contest, resulting in scores of anthologies showcasing the work of both students and adults. Longtime member Helen E. Dalton was one of the oldest American poets writing haiku when she passed away in 2004 at the age of 103. On Oahu, Hawaii is home to the infamous Haiku Stairs. And if you ever wanted to live in Haiku, there’s a town by that name on the island of Maui, which is home to haiku pioneer James W. Hackett (and also poet W. S. Merwin).
The University of Hawaii Press has occasionally published haiku-related books, notably Heiwa, an anthology of peace-related haiku, in 1995, and academic books such as Peipei Qiu’s Basho and the Dao: The Zhuangzi and the Transformation of Haikai, Lucien Stryk’s On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, and Stephen Addiss’s Haiga: Takebe Socho and the Haiku-Painting Tradition, among others.
—Michael Dylan Welch
Regional Links
The Haiku and Zen World of James W. Hackett
http://www.hacketthaiku.com/
Ode to Tofu Haiku Poetry Contest (Hawaii)
http://www.hawaiihealthguide.com/healthtalk/display.htm?id=833
University of Hawaii Press
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/
Join the HSA
http://www.hsa-haiku.org/join.htm
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Regional Coordinator
Susan Marie LaVallee
834 Wanaao Road
Kailua, HI 96734
<neverwasyet@ymail.com>
Susan Marie LaVallee has a BA in English, an MA in education, and teaching credentials in English and psychology, all from UCLA. She teaches at the elementary level and gives poetry and creative writing lectures, including haiku workshops. She has served as regional coordinator and haiku contest judge, and she aspires only to write. Her first encounter with haiku was looking at butterfly wings through a microscope in a biology class.
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