It’s time for another Meet the Prompters interview! We’re pleased to present responses from our January 2020 NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter, Kathabela Wilson. This is the third time she’s prompted for us (first time was in July of 2012). Read about her early poetic influences, a childhood poem about the moon and stars and sun, and her business of handmade jewelry. You can also enjoy three sample poems and learn how NaHaiWriMo, for Kathabela, is “a lifeline of creativity and community.” Thank you, Kathabela!

Thanks to BookRiot contributor Anna Gooding-Call for mentioning NaHaiWriMo, in a piece about variations of National Novel Writing Month posted on 8 November 2019. Check it out!

Our NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for the month of November 2019 is Sheila Windsor, who lives in Bexhill-on-Sea along the south coast of England. Check out her “Meet the Prompter” interview, newly posted. There you can read four of her favourite haiku, and learn how noticing one single poem more than twenty years ago got her started on the haiku path. Thank you, Sheila!

Our NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for the month of October 2019 is Tia Haynes, who lives in Lakewood, Ohio. Check out her “Meet the Prompter” interview, just posted—read three of her favourite haiku, learn about her first haiku book, and see how her discovery of haiku gave her a “new creative life.” Thank you for your prompts this month, Tia!

How about meeting our NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for September 2019? It’s Nicholas Klacsanzky. Read his “Meet the Prompter” interview, now available. Learn how his haiku-poet father, George Klacsanzky, influenced his writing (and the publication of their book, Zen and Son), and how Nicholas has spent his time in the Seattle area and in the Ukraine. Read three of his haiku too! Thank you, Nicholas.

Arvinder Kaur is our daily writing prompter for August 2019. You can learn more about her at her “Meet the Prompter” interview. Find out about her translations of poetry into Punjabi and Hindi, her experience as an English professor, and read three of her poems. Thank you to Arvinder, who is prompting for NaHaiWriMo for the first time.

For July of 2019, NaHaiWriMo has a first-time daily writing prompter. Kirsten Cliff Elliot is from New Zealand, and has been writing haiku for a dozen years. Read her interview on the “Meet the Prompters” page to learn what first launched her into haiku, about her blog and poetry book, and what else she does when she’s not writing haiku. Thank you, Kirsten!

If we’ve done the math correctly, today, April 19, 2019, marks the 3,000th daily writing prompt in NaHaiWriMo’s history. We began the prompts on the Facebook page on February 1, 2011, the day NaHaiWriMo started. A deep bow of thanks to all the volunteers who have supplied prompts over all these years. Congratulations to "twilight" for being the 3,000th prompt today, and happy 3,000th prompt, everyone!

Newly posted to the “Meet the Prompters” page is an interview in French and English with Vincent Hoarau, who has served as the daily writing prompter for NaHaiWriMo en français on Facebook for February 2018 and 2019. Read how he fell in love with haiku, and see three sample poems. Merci, Vincent!

Congratulations to Karen Schauber, of Vancouver, British Columbia, who became NaHaiWriMo’s 3,000th Facebook like sometime on 4 February 2019. At the end of 1 February 2019, NaHaiWriMo had 2,980 likes, which represents an increase of 189 over our 2,791 likes on the same date in 2018 (an increase of 6.78 percent). And the likes continue!

Where do most NaHaiWriMo likes come from? As of 4 February 2019, we had 3,011 likes (and rising) from around the world. Here’s the breakdown of the top twenty-five countries with the number of people who like NaHaiWriMo:

United States of America: 1,579
India: 194
Canada: 194
United Kingdom: 186
France: 101
Australia: 101
Bulgaria: 38
Japan: 28
Philippines: 27
Italy: 27
Indonesia: 21
New Zealand: 20
Malaysia: 18
Bangladesh: 18
Romania: 17
Ireland: 17
Israel: 17
Sweden: 16
Brazil: 16
Poland: 15
Germany: 14
Pakistan: 14
United Arab Emirates: 13
Nigeria: 12
Netherlands: 12

Elsewhere: 296

And in case you’re wondering, here are the top ten cities:

New York, New York: 45
Seattle, Washington: 40
London, England: 28
Vancouver, British Columbia: 27
Toronto, Ontario: 26
Los Angeles, California: 25
Melbourne, Australia: 23
Sofia, Bulgaria: 21
Portland, Oregon: 20
Mumbai, India: 20

Thanks to all for liking the NaHaiWriMo page on Facebook. Better yet, thanks to all who write haiku as often as they can!