Jim Kacian

Jim Kacian in Kumamoto, Japan, in mid-September 2007, while reading his haiku for a film in development by Slovenian filmmaker Dimitar Anakiev.

James Michael Kacian (born July 26, 1953) is an American haiku poet, editor, publisher, and public speaker. He has lived in London, Nashville, Bridgton (Maine) and now resides in Winchester, Virginia.

Life and writing career

Kacian was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, then adopted and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts. He wrote his first mainstream poems in his teens, and published them in small poetry magazines beginning in 1970. He also wrote, recorded, and sold songs while living in Nashville in the 1980s. Upon his return to Virginia in 1985 he discovered English-language haiku, for which he is best known.

In 1993, he founded Red Moon Press, and in the same year began editing the haiku journal South by Southeast.[1] Kacian's Red Moon Press is the largest publisher of haiku and haiku-related books outside Japan,[2] with a current catalog of over 60 titles in print, and producing some dozen titles a year, including 12 years of the award-winning annual Red Moon Anthology.[3] This was followed in 1998 with the editorship of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.

Having proposed a new global haiku association in 1999, Kacian co-founded the World Haiku Association with Ban'ya Natsuishi and Dimitar Anakiev.[4] In September 2000 the WHA held its inaugural conference in Tolmin, Slovenia.[5]

From August to November 2000, Kacian traveled to nine countries — the UK, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan promoting a global haiku.[6][7] Having invited haiku poets from around the world to submit their haiku to Frogpond, Kacian compiled and edited 2001’s XXIV:1 issue, featuring haiku from 24 countries.

In late 2008 Kacian formed and created The Haiku Foundation, a non-profit organization which focuses on archiving English-language haiku's first century while expanding its second, with an official start-date of January 6, 2009.[8]

In August 2013 his comprehensive anthology Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years was published by W. W. Norton & Company. Kacian served as editor-in-chief for the decade-long project, with Allan Burns and Philip Rowland as associate editors, and with a general introduction by former poet laureate Billy Collins. The anthology tells the story of English-language haiku from its first recognized example—Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”—to current practice, and offers selections from well over 200 poets in a chronological format. It also features Kacian’s 70-page overview of the genre.

Poetry collections

Kacian has written sixteen books of poetry, fourteen of which are dedicated to haiku or haiku-related genres. His poems have been translated into many languages.

Kacian's haiku,

clouds seen
through clouds
seen through

(along with 29 other chosen haiku) is etched in a stone along the Katikati Haiku Pathway beside the Uretara Stream in New Zealand.[9] (Poems were selected by the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee, New Zealand Poetry Society, and Catherine Mair.) In 2010 a second stone featuring his poem

a breeze and my mind on to other things

was added, making him one of only three poets with multiple stones, and the only American.

His essays have been cited in such works as:

Kacian's efforts on behalf of global haiku have been featured in:

And 30 of his selected haiku are featured at:

with an additional 17 personally selected in December, 2008 at:

Kacian's work has been anthologized in, among others:

His poem,

my fingerprints
on the dragonfly
in amber

serves as the departure point for Richard Gilbert’s monograph on contemporary haiku technique, The Disjunctive Dragonfly, defining innovative techniques in English-language haiku.[10]

Editorship

Kacian has edited several English-language haiku books and journals, including:

Awards

As a poet

Kacian's haiku have won or placed in many national and international haiku competitions in English (and occasionally other languages as well), including recently:

Individual collection awards

The books listed below have won The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for outstanding achievement in the genre.

As a publisher

Kacian’s work as publisher has also been highly recognized:

In 1996 his production of John Elsberg’s A Week in the Lake District was a finalist for Virginia Poetry Book of the Year (Virginia State Library).

In August 2000, Knots — The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry (1999), which Kacian co-edited with Dimitar Anakiev, won second place in the World Haiku Achievement Competition.[7]

In October 2008 he won the Ginyu Award for Outstanding Contribution to World Haiku (Ginyu issue 40, pp. 13–15).[16]

Publication credits

Kacian’s poems, articles, and book reviews have appeared internationally in journals, magazines, and newspapers including:

Speeches

Kacian has read in many parts of the world, including international poetry festivals in New York, New Orleans, London, Oxford, Belgrade, Vilanice, Ohrid, Skopje, Sofia, Sydney, Hobart, Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Tokyo, Tenri, Kyoto, Kumamoto, Los Angeles, Toronto and Washington D.C. Some of his speeches are listed below:

Essays

Theorist

His advocacy, along with that of such poets as Marlene Mountain and Janice Bostok, of single-line haiku in English has initiated renewed interest in this form following its rare usage during the 20th century. His work also champions several innovative techniques (as cited by Richard Gilbert in The Disjunctive Dragonfly and in his book Poems of Consciousness). Kacian's own critical writings elaborate some of these aesthetic innovations.

Interviews

Electronic media

Sources

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ↑ Pub. information, South by Southeast
  2. ↑ Breen, N. & Lyman, L. 2004 Poet's Market: 1800+ Places to Publish Your Poetry, F & W Publications, 2003, ISBN 1582971870, p. 314.
  3. ↑ About Red Moon Press
  4. ↑ Who We Are on the WHA website
  5. ↑ WHA Articles of Association on the WHA website
  6. ↑ Gilbert, Richard. Global Haiku and the Work of Jim Kacian at http://kacian.gendaihaiku.com
  7. 1 2 Trumbull, Charles. "The American Haiku Movement Part II: American Haiku, The Internet And World Haiku", in Modern Haiku, Spring 2006.
  8. ↑ Mann Library’s Daily Haiku » Jim Kacian
  9. ↑ Interview with Catherine Mair about The Haiku Pathway in Simply Haiku v3n2 Summer 2005
  10. ↑ Gilbert, Richard. The Disjunctive Dragonfly: A Study of Disjunctive Method and Definitions in Contemporary English‑language Haiku on gendaihaiku.com
  11. ↑ Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards 2011 at The International Academic Forum
  12. ↑ Risultati del Premio Poesia Haiku: AUTORI PREMIATI AL CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE HAIKU EDIZIONE 2007 by Cascina Macondo
  13. ↑ f/k/a’s 2007 ito en oi ocha winners
  14. ↑ Harold G. Henderson Memorial Award Collection on the HSA website
  15. ↑ Haiku Canada
  16. ↑ Ginyu International Haiku Quarterly
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