Up Against the Window: American Haibun & Haiga 1999

by Jim Kacian

The first of a planned annual volume of the best haibun (haiku prose) and haiga (haiku painting) published in English from around the world, and an award-winner in its inaugural appearance.

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Jim Kacian is an internationally-acclaimed poet, theorist, motivator, editor, and publisher. He has published seven books, which have won major awards; authored How to Haiku as well as numerous articles on haiku form and praxis; co-founded the World Haiku Association, which encourages poets from around the world to share haiku and theory, as well as being a long-time board member of the Haiku Society of America; edits South by Southeast and Frogpond (the international membership journal of the Haiku Society of America); and owns and operates Red Moon Press, the most prestigious publishing house dedicated to haiku in the world.

Reviews

[Bob Redmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first volume in an annual series of "American Haibun and Haiga," edited by Jim Kacian of Red Moon Press (the publisher) with Bruce Ross.

Haibun is a Japanese form of literature that combines short narratives and haiku. Haiga is another, related form, that combines haiku with quick sketches or paintings.

The work in this anthology is hit-and-miss, with some standout work by Jack Cain, Tom Clausen, Dennis Dutton, Kate MacQueen, and Paul Schmidt. The book production is marred by typos and novice typesetting, bad fonts, and truly poor reprographics of the artwork.

Some students and completists might need to read this; otherwise it's not something to go out of one's way to find.

*

WHY I READ THIS BOOK: I am both a student and a completist, and thus tracked it down via the publisher.