Check our schedule of upcoming events. For 2020 our judge is Julie Warther. See 2020 submission guidelines. Read results and commentary from all contests since 2004, including 2019 results judged by Tom Painting. Haiku Northwest’s annual haiku retreat every autumn is the highlight of our year. Our thirteenth anual retreat is scheduled for October 31–November 1, 2020, and will be a FREE online event via Zoom. Our focus is on a theme of “vision,” with Tom Painting as our special guest. See the 2020 information page, registration page, schedule, attendee list, and kukai winners. Read poems by our members, with short biographies. Learn more about the book, read sample poems, and more. Lean about and connect with our Haiku Northwest officers. Lean about our sister organization, with selected haiku in Japanese and English. Welcome to Haiku Northwest Haiku Northwest was founded in 1988 by Francine Porad. Our friendly group loves to share and discuss haiku and related poetry. We hold monthly meetings in the Seattle area on the second Thursday evening of most months, host an annual meeting in late spring, gather for our annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway in October, sponsor the annual Porad Haiku Award, and more. To get involved, check out our Events page, and join our email list (about two or three messages per month), by sending your request to haikunw1988@gmail.com. Read about our meetings (usually on the second Thursday of the month). Joint Haiku Meetings in Washington State
Read the history of Haiku Northwest meetings with other Washington haiku groups. Our haiku podcast from the Northwest Folklife festival and other performances.
Click to see see photos of some of our recent activities. View or download our current Haiku Northwest information sheet (PDF format).
Explore useful haiku links.
Our sister organization that meets monthly in Port Townsend, Washington. Poems by members of the Rainier Haiku Ginsha read at the national HSA meeting in June 2010. Learn how to contact us and find other useful information. If your question isn't answered here, please let us know. Founded in 1988
 Haiku Northwest is an enthusiastic and friendly group of poets from the greater Puget Sound area of Washington state, meeting monthly usually in Bellevue (just east of Seattle). We are dedicated to writing, studying, and appreciating haiku and related genres of poetry written in English. Our members include both new and established haiku writers, many of whom have had their work published in journals and anthologies throughout the world (the group won the first place Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America for its anthology, To Find the Words, published in 2000). We also welcome beginners.
Haiku Northwest began in 1988 under the leadership of Francine Porad (who passed away in September of 2006) to foster haiku writing in the Pacific Northwest and to provide local writers with current information about the local, national, and international haiku community and its publications. Haiku Northwest is within the Washington region of the Haiku Society of America (HSA), but functions as an independent group. Haiku Northwest holds monthly meetings and publishes regional anthologies of haiku and related poetry. Most of the group's members live in the Seattle area, but many haiku poets from the Puget Sound area and farther afield also attend Haiku Northwest meetings. The Haiku Northwest group has no membership dues, and visitors are always welcome to attend all events. “In our poems and discussions, the group tries to get beyond the cloud of surface facts, to see the deep stillness within the everyday.” —Anne Voegtlen  Haiku Northwest meeting at the Bellevue Regional Library, August 7, 2008. Left to right are Curtis Manley, Helen Russell, William Scott Galasso, Ida Freilinger, Bryson Nitta, Tanya McDonald, Connie Hutchison, Dejah Leger, Susan Miller, Terran Campbell, Joshua Beach, Angela Terry, Marilyn Sandall, and Herb McClees. Photo by Michael Dylan Welch. Come and join us! Original site established on AOL Hometown on February 14, 2004.
Site established at this location on October 8, 2008.
Webmaster: Michael Dylan Welch (WelchM@aol.com).
Haiku Northwest logo: Susan K. Miller.
All poems appearing on this site are the copyright of their respective authors.
Site Copyright © 2004–2021 by Michael Dylan Welch. |  Haiku Northwest Announcements Click any of the following links to read recent Haiku Northwest news or other site additions.
Haiku Northwest News Blog
Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2019 Our 2019 haiku retreat featured Adam L. Kern and Ion Codrescu over the weekend of October 24–27, 2019, with “attention” as our theme. Additional speakers included Pat Benedict, David Berger, Terry Ann Carter, Margaret Chula, Gary Evans, Marco Fraticelli, William Scott Galasso, Christine Hemp, Connie Hutchison, Lynne Jambor, Roy Kindelberger, kjmunro, Vicki McCullough, Tanya McDonald, Jacquie Pearce, Jim Rodriguez, Jacob Salzer, Crystal Simone Smith, Barbara Snow, Sheila Sondik, Carmen Sterba, John Stevenson, Ron Swanson, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, and Michael Dylan Welch. The primary highlight of the weekend was the unveiling of the “Seabeck Haiku Walk,” a series of twenty engraved plaques permanently installed around the Seabeck Conference Center grounds. We celebrated this installation with a walk around the campus to visit each plaque, where the poets read their poems, if they were present. As usual, we enjoyed haiga displays (including a special one from Ion Codrescu), our book fair and kukai and freebie tables, Write Now exercises, anonymous workshops, a panel discussion on the role of attention in haiku, talent show, late-night rengay (which veered off into the erotic), and the announcement of the 2019 Porad Award winners. We also enjoyed a talk from Christine Hemp, as a special guest via the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau. Adam Kern’s presentations focus on his Penguin Book of Haiku and his emphasis on senryu and other related forms that he proposes are more prominent in Japanese literary history than what we call haiku today. Ion Codrescu gave several presentations relating to his art and his haiku. We had more than 65 people in attendance. See the 2019 retreat schedule. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2019 photos coming soon. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2018 Our 2018 haiku retreat featured Abigail Friedman over the weekend of October 25–28, 2018, with the sense of sight as our theme (wrapping up the fifth of the five senses). We enjoyed a record number of 83 attendees in celebrating the Haiku Society of America’s 50th anniversary (we were the society’s official 50th anniversary retreat). Additional speakers and featured readers included Ellen Ankenbrock, Shelley Baker-Gard, David Berger, Susan Callan, Terry Ann Carter, Lysa Collins, Susan Constable, Seren Fargo, Patrick Gallagher, Garry Gay, John Green, Connie Hutchison, Cara Izumi, Lynne Jambor, Deborah P Kolodji, Brenda Larsen, Carole MacRury, Dorothy Matthews, Vicki McCullough, Tanya McDonald, Margaret D. McGee, Angela Naccarato, Victor Ortiz, Linda Papanicolaou, Bob Redmond, Jim Rodriguez, Michele Root-Bernstein, Ce Rosenow, Jacob Salzer, Barbara Snow, Carmen Sterba, John Stevenson, Ron Swanson, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, Kathleen Tice, Michael Dylan Welch, and Carolyn Winkler. Activities included morning meditations, rengay writing, another labyrinth, a birding nature walk, anonymous haiku workshops, a haiga slide show, a talk about honey bees and haiku, a panel discussion on moving from sight to insight, a memorial reading for Johnny Baranski, various other readings (this time at the campfire circle), numerous “Write Now” writing exercises, the announcement of the 2018 Porad Award winners, an artist book craft activity, and our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed another sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, this time focusing on haiku “mobiles,” plus our seventh annual talent show. See the 2018 retreat schedule. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2018 photos coming soon. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2017 Our 2017 haiku retreat featured Scott Mason over the weekend of October 26–29, 2017. Additional speakers and featured readers included Johnny Baranski, David Berger, Melinda Brottem, Terry Ann Carter, Susan Constable, Elehna de Sousa, Darlene Dihel, Julie Emerson, Ida Freilinger, Lynne Jambor, Nicholas Klacsanzky, Ruth Marcus, Dorothy Matthews, Vicki McCullough, Tanya McDonald, Jacquie Pearce, James Rodriguez, Michelle Schaefer, Hao Shen, Barbara Snow, John Stevenson, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, Kathleen Tice, Jessica Tremblay, Michael Dylan Welch, Kathabela Wilson, and Rick Wilson. Our activities included numerous “Write Now” writing exercises, the announcement of the 2017 Porad Award winners, beginning and advanced workshops, haiga presentations, readings (again, one in the Cathedral in the Woods), a lagoon walk, craft activities, and our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, and our sixth annual talent show. See the 2017 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2017 retreat: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4. See Jessica Tremblay’s Seabeck retreat report. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2016 Our 2016 haiku retreat featured Sonja Arntzen over the weekend of October 27–30, 2016. Additional speakers and featured readers included Ellen Ankenbrock, Shelley Baker-Gard, Chandra Bales, Johnny Baranski, David Berger, Terran Campbell, Margaret Chula, Darlene Dihel, Jay Friedenberg, Diane Garcia, Katharine Grubb Hawkinson, Lynne Jambor, Richard John Lynn, Annette Makino, Maya Makino, Dorothy Matthews, Vicki McCullough, Tanya McDonald, Hisao Mogi, Leanne Mumford, Angela Naccarato, Jacquie Pearce, Jim Rodriguez, Barbara Snow, John Stevenson, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, Chrissi Villa, Michael Dylan Welch, and Carolyn Winkler. Our activities included numerous “Write Now” writing exercises, the announcement of the 2016 Porad Award winners, beginning and advanced workshops, haiga presentations, readings (again, one in the Cathedral in the Woods), a mushroom walk, a tea ceremony, renku writing, craft activities, and Day of the Dead and Halloween activities, plus our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. A standout event was our night walk to the cemetery with a surprise visit from a “ghost” sharing death haiku in the dark. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, and our fifth annual talent show—surely our best ever. See the 2016 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2016 retreat: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4. See Kara Simon’s blog posts: Part 1, Part 2, and Cemetery Walk. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2015 Our 2015 haiku retreat featured Randy Brooks over the weekend of October 1–4, 2015. Additional speakers and featured readers included Lorna Cahall, Patty Hardin, Katharine Grubb Hawkinson, Erica Akiko Howard, Chuck Kraining (executive director of the Seabeck Conference Center), Annette Makino, Dorothy Matthews, Tanya McDonald, Jacquie Pearce, James Rodriguez, Ce Rosenow, Michelle Schaefer, Carmen Sterba, Angela Terry, Sandy Thompson, Richard Tice, Michael Dylan Welch, Janet Whitney, Kathabela Wilson, Elizabeth-Ann Winkler, and others. Our activities included another renkurama, a “Haiku Handshake,” the announcement of the 2015 Porad Award winners, beginning and advanced workshops, haiga presentations, readings (including one in the Cathedral in the Woods), t’ai chi and hokey-pokey breaks, nature walks, an erotic haiku workshop (since touch was our theme for the weekend), plus our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, and our fourth annual talent show. See the 2015 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2015 retreat [coming soon], plus photos of attendee faces and name badges [coming soon]. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2014 Our 2014 haiku retreat featured Alan Pizzarelli over the weekend of October 16–19, 2014. Additional speakers and featured readers included Donna Beaver, Susan Callan, Terry Ann Carter, Susan Constable, Aubrie Cox, Christopher Herold, Deborah P Kolodji, Chuck Kraining (executive director of the Seabeck Conference Center), Carole MacRury, Tanya McDonald, Margaret D. McGee, RaNae Merrill, Bob Moyer, Kathy Munro, James Rodriguez, Michelle Schaefer, John Stevenson, Angela Terry, Richard Tice, Jessica Tremblay (our cartoonist-in-residence), Karma Tenzing Wangchuk, Michael Dylan Welch, and others. Our activities included another renkurama, a haiku labyrinth, the announcement of the 2014 Porad Award winners, a daytime nature walk and a night haiku walk with lanterns, plus our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, and our third annual talent show. See the 2014 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2014 retreat [coming soon], plus photos of attendee faces and name badges [coming soon]. See a report of the 2014 retreat, Jessica Tremblay’s summary of the weekend (in words, photos, and comics), Rick Clark’s blog report, and Aubrie Cox’s interview about Seabeck with Michael Dylan Welch. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2013 Our 2013 haiku retreat featured Canadian haiku poet Marco Fraticelli over the weekend of October 10–13, 2013. Additional speakers and featured readers included Michael Dylan Welch, Angela Terry, Kathabela Wilson, Richard Tice, Jessica Tremblay (our cartoonist-in-residence), Margaret D. McGee, Tanya McDonald, Susan Constable, Vicki McCullough, Annette Makino, Kozue Uzawa, Terry Ann Carter, Dianne Garcia, Nancy Dahlberg, James Rodriguez, Alice Frampton, Carmen Sterba, Johnny Baranski, Jacquie Pearce, and others. Our activities included another renkurama, a haiku labyrinth, the announcement of the 2013 Porad Award winners, a couple of outdoor haiku walks, and our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, and our second annual talent show, coordinated by Dejah Léger. See the 2013 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2013 retreat, part 1 and part 2, plus photos of attendee faces and name badges. Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2012 Our 2012 haiku retreat featured Paul Miller, incoming editor of Modern Haiku, over the weekend of October 11–14, 2012. Additional speakers and featured readers included Michael Dylan Welch, Tanya McDonald, Angela Terry, Cara Holman, Terri L. French, Jim Swift, Carole MacRury, Johnny Baranski, Margaret McGee, Dianne Garcia, Barry George, and others. Our activities included another renkurama, a panel discussion, the announcement of the 2012 Porad Award winners, a couple of outdoor haiku walks, and our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. We also enjoyed a sumi-e and haiga exhibit coordinated by the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, plus their hands-on haiga workshop, and our first-ever talent show, coordinated by Dejah Léger. See the 2012 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2012 retreat, photos of attendee faces and name badges, and Annette Makino’s blog posting about finding her tribe at Seabeck.
Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2011
Our 2011 haiku retreat featured John Stevenson, editor of The Heron's Nest, over the weekend of October 13–16, 2011. Additional speakers included Michael Dylan Welch, Tanya, McDonald, Susan Constable, Cara Holman, and Angela Terry, with activities such as our first renkurama, the creation of a beautiful holographic (handmade) retreat anthology, a presentation on weathergrams by Barbara Snow, the announcement of the 2011 Porad Award winners, a couple of outdoor haiku walks, and our usual silent auction, bookfair, and anonymous workshops. See the 2011 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2011 retreat.
Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2010
Our 2010 haiku retreat featured Charles Trumbull, editor of Modern Haiku, over the weekend of November 4–7, 2010—and we added an extra day, to start on Thursday evening. This gave us more time for renku and other activities, more time between events, and a more relaxed weekend. We're already looking forward to our 2011 retreat, confirmed for the weekend of October 13–16, 2011, so please mark it on your calendar now! Our accommodations are The Firs, Hemlock, and Madrona. We'll again be meeting in the Colman building, which can accommodate 80 people upstairs and 60 people downstairs, plus it has its own lounge, kitchen, and bathrooms. See the 2010 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2010 retreat. See blog posts by Deborah P Kolodji: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.
Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2009 Haiku Northwest held its second annual haiku retreat on the weekend of October 16–18, 2009 at the Seabeck Conference Center. Our featured speaker was Penny Harter, and additional speakers included Christopher Herold, Michael Dylan Welch, Ce Rosenow, Debbie Kolodji, Richard Tice, Margaret D. McGee, and more. See the 2009 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2009 haiku retreat. And see the cool video!
Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2008
Haiku Northwest held its first annual haiku retreat on the weekend of October 10–12, 2008 at the Seabeck Conference Center. Our featured speaker was Emiko Miyashita, visiting from Japan, and additional speakers included Christopher Herold, Margaret Chula, Alice Frampton, Michael Dylan Welch, and more. See the 2008 retreat schedule. See photos from our 2008 haiku retreat.
Haiku Society of America National Meetings Haiku Northwest hosted a national meeting of the Haiku Society of America June 21–23, 2013—click here for more information. We also hosted previous national meetings on February 12, 2012; June 25–27, 2010—click here for more information; and June 27–29, 2008—click here for more information.
Email List
Haiku Northwest has a private email list, which we encourage you to join to receive our announcements. If you are interested in joining the private mailling list, please contact haikunw1988@gmail.com. We welcome your participation and input, and invite you to get involved.
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