Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (Paperback)

~ (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

Product 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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Product Details

• 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
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,252,785 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessity for readers and writers of haiku and renku!, October 15, 2001

By	Hortensia Anderson "Hortensia Anderson" (nyc, ny, usa) - See all my reviews

I love both reading and writing renga/renku and other collaborative poetry endeavours. That said, I don't recall any of my collaborators in poetry not owning the Haiku Almanac. It is indispensable and has William Higginson's amazing ability to create a reference book equally valuable to the already published professional and the curious novice.

Higginson provides a wealth of examples and manages to tie them together despite their diversities. Pure joy!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant publication, November 21, 1998

By A Customer

Higginson has demonstrated the global relevance of haiku and, in doing so, has given haiku poets the world over a brilliant and valuable resource text.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant book, October 30, 1997

By	[e-mail] (Varazdin, CROATIA) - See all my reviews

very very very good and very systematic and anthologic book of world haiku