Lee Gurga

Lee Gurga (born July 28, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is an award-winning American haiku poet. In 1997 he served as president of the Haiku Society of America.[1] He was the editor of Modern Haiku magazine from 2002 to 2006, and is the current editor of the Modern Haiku Press. Gurga lives in Lincoln, Illinois, where he works as a dentist.[2][3] Also involved in the translation of Japanese haiku into English, Gurga cites Matsuo Bashō, a Japanese poet from the Edo period, as one of his main appreciations.[4] One of his most known haiku is about graduation day for students and is presented in his book Haiku: A Poet's Guide.[5]

Background

Born in Chicago, Gurga attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He first became interested in haiku during his high school years after reading a haiku translation book by Reginald Horace Blyth. He started his own haiku writing after that, focusing on Midwest imagery and scenery for his topics.[6]

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ Matthew Mirapaul (November 12, 1998). "To a Haiku Writer, Spam Is Poetry in a Can". New York Times. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  2. ↑ http://www.appledental-lincoln.com/about.html
  3. ↑ Staff writer (September 5, 2000). "Dentist from rural Illinois writes Japanese-style poetry two years in a row, his haiku have won top American prizes". Associated Press. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  4. ↑ Diane Toroian (July 19, 2002). "In our high-stress culture, haiku emerges as popular form of expression". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved April 14, 2012. (subscription required (help)).
  5. ↑ Toru Kiuchi (March 22, 2009). "Teaching Richard Wright's Haiku in Japan". The Black Scholar. Retrieved April 14, 2012. (subscription required (help)).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Heuvel, Cor Van Den (2007). Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 70–73. Retrieved April 15, 2012.

Further reading