Poet Profile

Margaret Chula

Margaret Chula began writing haiku when she lived in Kyoto (1980-1992), and has published six collections. One of her haibun was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Active in the international haiku community, she has been a featured speaker for the Haiku Society of America, Haiku North America, the Yuki Teikei Society, Haiku Canada, and was a delegate to the Haiku International Association conference in Tokyo. As a performance artist, she has presented multi-media shows with her husband/photographer John Hall, musicians, and dancers. Her one-woman presentation, ‘Three Women Who Loved Love: The Lives and Poems of Izumi Shikibu, Akiko Yosano, and Masajo Suzuki,’ premiered in Krakow in 2003 and toured to Boston, Ogaki (Japan), New York, and Ottawa. . She served as President of the Tanka Society of America for five years, as Poet Laureate for Friends of Chamber Music, and is currently on the Advisory Board for the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University.

Awards and Other Honors:

Co-Judge for the British Haiku Society’s Haibun Award, 2021; Ito en En Oi Ocha Haiku Contest, Sponsors’ Award, 2021; Co-Judge for the HSA Haibun Awards, 2021; HSA Haibun Contest Award, 2nd place, 2020; Touchstone Distinguished Book Award ( One Leaf Detaches, 2019); Basho-an Haiku Competition winner, 2020; Jerry Kilbride International Haibun Contest, First Prize, 2015; HSA Haibun Contest, Third Prize, 2015; Genjuan Haibun Contest, First Prize, 2014; Pushcart Prize Nominee, 2010; Haiku Society of America's Commendation Award (The Smell of Rust, 2004); Haiku Society of America Book Award ( Shadow Lines, with Rich Youmans, 2000), Second Place; Haiku Society of America Book Award, First Place ( Grinding my ink, 1994).

Books Published:

Firefly Lanterns: Twelve Years in Kyoto (Shanti Arts, 2021); Perigee Moon (Red Mountain Press, 2021); One Last Scherzo (Finishing Line Press, 2020); Shadow Man (The Poetry Box, 2019); One Leaf Detaches (Alba Press, 2019); Winter Deepens (Snapshot Press, 2018); Daffodils at Twilight (Kelsay Press, 2017); Just This (Mountains and Rivers Press, 2013);What Remains: Japanese Americans in Internment Camps, with quilt artist Cathy Erickson (Katsura Press, 2009); The Smell of Rust (Katsura Press, 2005); Always Filling, Always Full (White Pine Press, 2001); Grinding my ink CD, with Ken Ulansey on woodwinds (Katsura Press, 2000); Shadow Lines, Linked Haibun with Rich Youmans (Katsura Press, 1999); This Moment (Katsura Press, 1995); Grinding my ink (Katsura Press, 1993).

sound of a moth
trapped in a paper lantern
summer rain

end of the walk
returning the crow’s feather
where I found it

dusk settles
into the rice stubble
a sickle moon

Through the slats
of the outhouse door
Everest!

Tokyo vending machine
   the long line
      behind the foreigner

end of summer
my garden
in one wheelbarrow

Credits:

"sound of a moth" – Eminent Mention Award, Modern Haiku XIV:2 (1983); Grinding my ink (Katsura Press,1993); "dusk settles" - Itoen Oi Ocha International Haiku Contest Winner (2009); "Tokyo vending machine" - Third Prize, Haiku Society of America’s Gerald Brady Award for Senryu (2008); Frogpond 32:1 (2009);"end of the walk" – First Honorable Mention, Haiku Society of America's Harold G. Henderson Awards for Haiku (2010); Frogpond 34:1 (2011); "Through the slats" - van den Heuvel, The Haiku Anthology 3 (W. W. Norton & Company, New York (1999); Modern Haiku XVIII:3 (1987); "end of summer" - Third Prize, Haiku Poets of Northern California San Francisco International Competition Awards for Haiku (2006); Mariposa 16 (2006).