Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Paperback)

by William J. Higginson (Author) "The following entries appear under Spring, in the categories indicated..." (more)
Key Phrases: international saijiki, autumn topic, haikai saijiki, North America, The Netherlands, New Zealand (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Book Description
This unique anthology contains over one thousand haiku and related poems by more than six hundred poets living in fifty countries and writing in twenty-five languages, presented in both English and their original languages. It demonstrates how a tradition begun hundreds of years ago in Japan has now become international.

These highly condensed poems often hinge on words or phrases connected with nature; Japanese anthologies have traditionally been arranged by these seasonal themes and included explanations of them. Haiku World is the first book in another language to follow this structure--with explanations of seasonal phenomena from countries, cultures, and environments on every inhabited continent.

The companion volume, The Haiku Seasons, gives an overview of the whole tradition of the haiku genre, including haiku, senryu, and linked poetry. Haiku World gives us the world today--in the most generous international collection of such poems ever published--and demonstrates our common experience, beyond cultural and geographical boundaries.

About the Author
William J. Higginson studied Japanese at Yale University where he discovered the haiku, and served, with the U.S. Air Force in Japan. He is a charter member of the Haiku Society of America, founded in 1968, and edited and published Haiku Magazine (1971-76). He has three published collections of longer poems and one of haiku, and has work appearing in magazines and anthologies worldwide. He has also taught in the National Endowment for the Arts "Poets-in-the Schools" program, leading writing workshops in hundreds of schools, and he regularly speaks at conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. Higginson's international anthology of haiku for children, Wind in the Long Grass, is a classroom favorite. His two-volume sequel to The Haiku Handbook, The Haiku Seasons and Haiku World, gives a comprehensive view of the history, present state, and international possibilities of seasonal consciousness in poetry.

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• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International (JPN) (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770020902
• ISBN-13: 978-4770020901
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
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