Book-of-the-Week

Elizabeth St Jacques was a familiar figure to those poets who first cultivated their interest in haiku on the internet. This volume, her longest and strongest collection, dates from 1995 (maplebud press, artwork by Ruby Spriggs). You can read the…

Robert Gilliland still publishes the occasional haiku in the best journals, but he was most active in the mid- to late 90s, when this volume, his strongest, was released by Polliwog Press (1999). You can read the entire book in…

Doreen King has been General Secretary of the British Haiku Society and editor of Time Haiku. Her distinctive voice is evident in this strong collection, edited by vince tripi, from Tribe Press (2007). You can read the entire book in…

Don Eulert, one of the founding editors of English-language haiku’s first journal, American Haiku, teaches psychology to aspiring doctors using haiku (see his interview on this site). Field is his most significant book, from AHA Books (1998). You can read…

John Stevenson has put out so many great books that is may be hard to remember his first, Something Uneraseable, self-published in 1996, and already replete with his characteristic trenchant observation and justesse of phrasing. You can read the entire…

Marian Olson is strongly identified with the New Mexico area, but she essayed a broader and more rural context in this early chapbook from Honeybrook Press (1992). Illustrations by Alice Noera. The Haiku Foundation does not have a copy of…

Paul Miller, writing under paul m. and current editor of Modern Haiku, debuted with this beautiful evocation of nature (Press Here, 2002), wherein one can discover the beginnings of a style he has since developed into a distinctive and lapidary…

Catherine J. S. Lee made a splash with her beautiful debut chapbook, All That Remains (Turtle Light Press, 2011), revealing a probing sensibility and a sharp eye for gesture and metaphor. You can read the entire book in the THF…

Christopher Herold writes poems which reflect his active engagement with zen and meditation, and also his environment by the sea. This chapbook from Snapshot Press (2000) captures both of these areas of interest expertly. Snapshot Press declines to make this…

Jim Kacian has celebrated Haiku North America by creating a series of personal, themed, and illustrated chapbooks on a variety of topics, beginning in 2005 with this nautical offering (Red Moon Press). You can read the entire book in the…

Laurie Stoelting’s beautiful paean to Mt. Tamalpais (tribe press, 2008) has drawn the attention of not only haiku poets, but naturalists, scientists, hikers, other poets, and just about everyone who has had a look at this book. You'll see why…

William Hart is a poet from Kansas, but you’d never know it from his work, which is often richly exotic, as this beautiful 1991 collection from Timberline Press will attest. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital…

David Elliott’s work has a consistently quiet, confidential, grounded feel to it, from his earliest, as in this collection from AHA Press in 1992, to the present day. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. All…

Penny Harter had a reputation and extensive publishing credentials in “long poetry” before she came to haiku in the 1970s. This collection, from From Here Press (1980), gives a flavor of her earliest work. You can read the entire book…

Sam Savage, before his acclaim as a novelist, tried his hand at numerous tasks, including letterpress printer and haiku poet. He set this first volume, from Hardscrabble Press in 1999, himself. You can read the entire book in the THF…

Ce Rosenow is past president of the Haiku Society of America, and author of two volumes of haiku. This is the earlier, from Mountain Gate Press in 2004. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. All…

Mike Dillon has been plying his way with haiku for three decades. This is his only full-length book from all that time, from Red Moon Press in 2003. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. All…

Jeff Witkin left only two books of haiku before leaving haiku, but they made their mark. This is the earlier, from Tiny Poems Press in 1997. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library. All haiku in…

Paul O. Williams wrote science fiction, critical theory, and some of the best traditional haiku in English. These are from one of his most beloved volumes, from Conflower Press in 1982. You can read the entire book in the THF…

Elizabeth Searle Lamb’s earliest published haiku date from the 1970s, well before her time as editor of Frogpond. Here is some of that early work, from High/Coo Press in 1982. You can read the entire book in the THF Digital…