Midwest Region of the Haiku Society of America

Haiku Society of America Region

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Midwest Region

This region includes Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Haiku Society of America: Midwest Newsletter
Kathryn P. Haydon, Midwest Regional Coordinator

2024-05 HSA Midwest News

The Midwest region has traditionally been a focal point of American haiku activity with publications such as American Haiku, the world’s first English-language haiku journal (started in 1963), and Modern Haiku, which has been published here for most of its existence, among others. In addition, we are also home to Brooks Books, the country’s longest publisher devoted to books of English haiku, and its journal Mayfly. The region hosted the landmark Haiku Chicago event in 1995 (the first-ever joint conference of the Haiku Society of America and Japan’s Haiku International Association), the 1999 Haiku North America conference, the 2000 Global Haiku Festival, and, more recently, the “Cradle of American Haiku” festivals.

The Midwest region has a wealth of talent, with HSA members in eight states, and strives to grow in its knowledge of haiku by holding informative readings and critiques, with presentations by excellent poets and speakers, to which the public is always invited. Additional activities include outdoor walks, such as visiting the Japanese garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Members often meet for dinner after events to socialize.

If you’re not already an HSA member, please come to one of our gatherings or free programs, and give us a try. We encourage haiku poets throughout the Midwest to start a new group (the Midwest regional coordinator is always happy to help), or to join an existing group:

In Waukesha, Wisconsin contact Dan Schwerin

Illinois State Poetry Society - haiku - contact Thomas Checkley

In East Lansing, Michigan, contact Michele Root-Bertstein
Evergreen Haiku

In Michigan, contact Mike Rehling
Failed Haiku founding editor

In St. Louis, Missouri, contact John Dunphy
Mississippi Mud Daubers

In Ohio, contact Nicky Gutierrez
Ohaio-ku

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Regional Coordinator

Kathryn P. Haydon is a Midwestern poet who is grateful that she was led to haiku by favorite longer-form poets such as William Carlos Williams and Jane Hirshfield. She went from publishing fairly short poems in her collection Unsalted Blue Sunrise: Poems of Lake Michigan to writing one-breath haiku. Kathryn’s poems and haiku have won awards and are published internationally in books, anthologies, and journals such as The Heron’s Nest, Wales Haiku Journal, Mayfly, Acorn, Humana Obscura, Presence, Autumn Moon, tsuri-doro, Haiku Girl Summer, Frogpond, Failed Haiku, Modern Haiku, Cattails, Hedgerow, Akitsu Quarterly, Prune Juice, and others. She is honored that her haiku is included in The Red Moon Anthology 2024.

Kathryn is currently the poet-in-residence at Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods in Illinois. Her seventh book, A Love Letter to Deep Souls, is being released on her Deep Soul Strengths Substack. She is very interested in learning what fellow Midwestern haiku poets would like to see in terms of opportunities to connect and share, so please reach out with your thoughts!