Celebration Fortnight — Day 9
Each day during our celebration we will focus on a single aspect of the Foundation. Today THF president Jim Kacian walks us through some of the Foundation’s holdings in its physical archives, and urges you to consider your haiku legacy.
2016 has been a particularly rich and important year for The Haiku Foundation Archives. At the beginning of the year THF held substantial collections from Paul Reps (via Susan Marie LaVallée), Cor van den Heuvel, Alexis Rotella, Marshall Hryciuk, Joze Volaric, Raymond Roseliep (via Donna Bauerly), Robert Major (via Betty Major), and Martin Lucas (via David Lucas). During this year, however, we have added major contributions from Roberta Beary (her library); Martin Lucas (adding his library to his collection of hand-written note- and sketchbooks bequeathed last year by David); and James W. Hackett (via his literary executor, Christopher Thorsen). These are some of the most important collections in the world of haiku, and The Haiku Foundation is honored and humbled to accept the responsibility of maintaining them for the use of future generations of poets, readers and scholars.
Full disclosure of all these holdings will be made available online once cataloguing has been completed.
It’s never too early to consider what to do with your haiku legacy. THF has assembled information to help you decide how to proceed, as well as a free legal alternative to donate your materials to the Foundation (or, by rewording the document, anyone else). And if you would like to discuss whether your holdings might fit within the Foundation’s purview, contact us. We’re always willing to give you our opinion.
Once a year we ask the haiku community to help us meet our financial challenges. We reserve the period from Thanksgiving through St. Nicholas Day, the time our culture has has set aside to note our many blessings and show our appreciation. Thank you to those of you who have already contributed. If you have not done so yet, please take this opportunity to help us continue our work — details on our donation page. Again this year we have the support of an anonymous angel who will double your donations — for every dollar you commit, the Foundation receives $2. Please help us make the most of this generous offer, and thanks in advance for your support of The Haiku Foundation, and of haiku itself. We wish you a most happy holiday season.
