Haiku Society of America - Midwest Region

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
Rowan Beckett Minor, 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:

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HSA Regions

Regional Coordinator

Rowan Beckett Minor
                    Rowan Beckett Minor

            rowanbeckettpoems@gmail.com

Rowan Beckett Minor (they/them), founder of #FemkuMag, is a disabled Melungeon activist who utilizes poetry for healing. They have work featured in numerous international journals and anthologies, including: The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Mayfly, and A New Resonance 12 (Red Moon Press). Rowan is also the recipient of several awards, including three winning poems in the 2023 Trailblazer Contest. They are honored to have co-judged the Haiku Society of America’s Brady Senryu Contest (2022), as well as to have given presentations for the Haiku North America Conference (2019, 2021). Although Rowan currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio, they are originally from the New River Gorge in Prince, West Virginia.

                    running barefoot 
                    up the mountain 
                    wild lupine

                                worm moon
                                this pain                                  
                                bone deep

stars on stars ever growing my boyhood

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See former event reports in our Midwest Region Web Archives:

| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2013 & 2014 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |