Archive: Haiku Holiday:
April 30, 2011

Overview

We celebrated the 32nd annual Haiku Holiday with the North Carolina Haiku Society on Saturday, April 30, 2011. Experienced haiku teachers and poets conducted workshops, talks and walks. The event was open to anyone with an interest in haiku, beginner or advanced.

Our first Haiku Holiday took place at Bolin Brook Farm near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the United States of America on January 26, 1980. Since then, all of our annual meetings have been held at Bolin Brook Farm—thanks to our gracious host and member since the beginning, Jean Earnhardt. Our Galleries section has a few pictures from past Haiku Holidays. See these galleries of photos from Haiku Holiday 2011: People & Haiku.

If you are going to participate in a workshop, bring previously written, unpublished haiku—or you can dash one off after the ginko (haiku walk). Membership in the North Carolina Haiku Society is encouraged but not required. There is no membership or registration fee, but small donations will be gratefully accepted at the workshop.

Please:

  • Bring a bag lunch.
  • Check the weather and dress accordingly. Haiku Holiday is held rain or shine.

Bring One Favorite Haiku on a 3 x 5 Card

Please consider bringing one favorite haiku on a 3 x 5 card. The haiku should be by someone other than yourself. Be sure to include the poet's name on the card, if you know it. The haiku can be on any subject. We'll post these cards around Jean's house for people to read during the day.

Contact

The main contact for this meeting is Dave Russo. See the Contact Us page for my contact information. Feel free to contact me with any questions about the meeting.

Presenters

Lenard D. Moore, the Executive Chairman of the North Carolina Haiku Society, was Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet for Eastern North Carolina from 2007 to 2009. He is a past President of the Haiku Society of America: the first Southerner and the first African American to be elected as President of the HSA. Lenard is the founder of the Carolina African American Writers' Collective (CAAWC). His latest collection of poems is A Temple Looming (WordTech Editions: 2008). Lenard will give some opening remarks and will lead one of the haiku workshops in the afternoon.

Kate MacQueen is an anthropologist who conducts international research on the social, behavioral and ethical aspects of biomedical HIV prevention. She also writes poetry, mostly along New Hope Creek in North Carolina and otherwise on airplanes and in hotels. She was a founding member of pinecone: the North Georgia Haiku Society and since 2001 has been a member of the North Carolina Haiku Society. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications including Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, Acorn, Contemporary Haibun & Haiga and big sky: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku. She was a runner-up in the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition in 2000 and 2008. Kate will lead a presentation and discussion about haiku and health.

Dave Russo organizes the regular meetings of the North Carolina Haiku Society. His haiku have appeared in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Acorn, and other journals. He is included in the latest New Resonance anthology from Red Moon Press. Dave is the web administrator for the North Carolina Haiku Society and The Haiku Foundation. He will lead one of haiku workshops in the afternoon.

Our Host

Jean Earnhardt retired in 1995 after 20 years as a hospital PR/marketing director. She received her undergraduate degree in English from Carolina in 1952 and a Masters in Liberal Studies from Duke forty years later. While raising two sons she sold freelance features and photographs to newspapers and tried her hand at short stories and poetry. She lives on an old farmstead which has been in Jean's family for 12 generations. Bolin Brook has hosted the Haiku Holiday since its inception in 1980.

Directions to Bolin Brook Farm

Bolin Brook Farm is a beautiful place, but you may need a little help in finding it. Here is Jean's address and contact information:

Jean Earnhardt
600 Bolin Brook Farm Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-929-4884
jjearn@bellsouth.net

Click this link to see a Google Map.

Click this link to see a photo of the sign you'll see on the side of the road: Photos from Haiku Holiday 2002.

Schedule for Haiku Holiday on Saturday April 30, 2011

Updated: April 24, 2011

All schedules are tentative, of course, due to weather, whims, and twists of fate.

8:45: 9:25 AM Registration, coffee, tea and pastry
9:30 to 9:45 Opening Remarks by Jean Earnhardt and Lenard D. Moore.
9:45 to 9:50

In Memory of Mary Belle Campbell

Long-time NCHS member Mary Belle Campbell passed away on April 1, 2011. Many of you might be familiar with the Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Book Publication Award, an award that she founded at the North Carolina Writer's Network. Here's a photo of Mary Belle at a North Carolina Poetry Society Fall Meeting in 2003. (Scroll down to see her photo.)

See this 1998 North Carolina Poetry Society article about Mary Belle by Mary Carlton Snotherly. Includes Mary Belle's poem, "Pine Lake at Twilight."

See this personal tribute to Mary Belle by Rebecca Ball Rust, founder of the North Carolina Haiku Society.

9:50: to 10:15

Announcement of a new NCHS haiku anthology about . . . you'll see!

10:15 to 11:15

Health and Haiku, a presentation and discussion led by Kate MacQueen.

"Health is an integral part of the way we experience life. It can intensify or obscure our experience. And it is part of the natural world we observe. As a social scientist engaged in public health research and someone who reads and writes haiku, I will explore the ways in which contemporary haiku poets are writing---and not writing---about health. This exploration will look at the ups and downs of health but not death and dying (which is really a genre unto itself). In addition to reading and discussing a selection of haiku and haibun, we will consider alternative images and descriptions of the experience of health as a prompt for some quick experimentation in writing 'health-y haiku.'"

11:15 to 12:15

Self-guided ginko (haiku walk) and Other Activities.

Some of us will follow the usual trail for the ginko as we have done in the past.

Visit our book display, featuring Rosenberry Books and Red Moon Press.

Take the opportunity to talk with NCHS members about haiku.

12: 15 to 1:15

Lunch

Please bring a bag lunch. Drinks will be provided.

1:15 to 1:35

Reading by Roberta Beary

Roberta will read from her most recent chapbook, nothing left to say, and perhaps other work.
1:35 to 3:30

Workshops

Haiku workshops led by and Lenard D. Moore and Dave Russo. You can workshop a haiku that you wrote today, or you can bring previously-written work to discuss.
Around 3:30 Meeting adjourns