Read news items and milestones for NaHaiWriMo here. This is all the news you need, right? That and a good cup of mocha. |
NaHaiWriMocha
Meet Our November 2020 Prompter, Lori A Minor
Lori A Minor has been tossing haiku bombs for a few years now, and I’m pleased that she is serving as NaHaiWriMo’s daily writing prompter for the month of November 2020. On the “Meet the Prompters” page, you can now read my interview with Lori A Minor. She’s a Twilight Zone fan, and that’s just a tiny tease of what you can learn in her interview. She has a theatre background, recently moved to North Carolina, and also provides three of her haiku for you to enjoy. |
Meet Our October 2020 Prompter, Joshua Gage
You’ve seen his poetry all over various haiku journals in print and online. You’ve seen him leap tilted paving stones with a single bound. He’s Joshua Gage. And he’s our NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompter for October 2020. You can learn more about Joshua Gage at his interview now available through the “Meet the Prompters” page. Find out how he came to haiku, learn about his publications, and read three sample poems. Thank you, Joshua! |
Gender, Age, and Location Statistics on Facebook
Here’s a
statistic that may be interesting to some, as of today, 21 September 2020.
Since NaHaiWriMo began in February of 2010 (yes, we’re celebrating our tenth
anniversary this year), we’ve had 113 months of individual prompters, and three
months of having a different prompter for each day of the month (pass-the-baton
months). Not counting the pass-the-baton months, of those 113 other months,
just 39 of those months have been prompted by males, or 34.5 percent. Many
prompters have done the task more than once, so if we take out those
duplications, only 19 of the 69 different individual prompters we’ve had have
been male, or 27.5 percent. These percentages fall a little below the demographic statistics
I can see for the NaHaiWriMo Facebook page as its administrator, which identifies site
visitors as 63 percent female and 35 percent male (the remaining 2 percent
being unknown or unspecified). We might wonder why haiku, or NaHaiWriMo, or
perhaps the social media technology in this case, attracts nearly twice as many
females as males, but I have no explanation for this. |
Meet Our August 2020 Prompter, Carole MacRury
Carole MacRury has provided daily writing prompts for NaHaiWriMo for the month of August 2020. This is the second time she’s prompted for us—the first time was in April of 2013. Read her interview on the “Meet the Prompters” page to learn about the unique place where she lives (an island that isn’t an island), and to read three sample haiku. |
Meet Our June 2020 Prompter, Nicole Pottier
For June of 2020, NaHaiWriMo’s daily writing prompter is Nicole Pottier, who is prompting for us for the first time. She lives in Normandy, France and has been writing haiku since 2010, after connecting with Romanian haiku poets. Read more about Nicole at her “Meet the Prompter” interview, in both English and French (including three sample poems for each language). |
Meet Our May 2020 Prompter, Patsy Turner
It’s time again to meet our monthly prompter, this time Patsy Turner, for May 2020, who is prompting for NaHaiWriMo for the first time. Patsy spent a year as an exchange student in Japan but hails from New Zealand, where she works at a museum. Check out her “Meet the Prompter” interview, read three of her haiku, and learn how NaHaiWriMo helped to provide her solace and community after the Christchurch-area earthquakes—and continues to provide community even during our worldwide virus lock-down. |
Meet Our April 2020 Prompter, Terri L. French
Despite the coronavirus that has temporarily shuttered much of the world, NaHaiWriMo has soldiered on. For the month of April 2020, and in celebration of National Poetry Month, our daily writing prompter has been Terri L. French, and now it’s time to get to know her a little better. You can read more about her new mobile adventures, and see three selected poems, in her interview on the “Meet the Prompters” page. |
Meet Our March 2020 Prompter, Barbara Strang
Time to “Meet the Prompter” for March 2020. Prompting for NaHaiWriMo for the first time is Barbara Strang. Read her interview to see a picture of Barbara with Bashō, learn about her New Zealand haiku influences (and the Christchurch earthquake), and read three of her poems. Thank you, Barbara! |
NaHaiWriMo Takes a Village
Some highlights of this time include our progression through the alphabet from January 2014 to February of 2016, where every prompt for each month started with a particular letter of the alphabet (some of those letters made it tough to come up with 28, 30, or 31 prompts!). And we all endured a sad time in January of 2014 when Kat Creighton died halfway through her month of prompting (her last prompt was “apartheid”), and Scott Abeles took over by sharing haiku, tanka, and photo-haiga by Kat to inspire us for the rest of that month. Kat was also the very first person to respond to the “Meet the Prompters” interview questions, posted just a few days before she died, a new feature on the website that started in 2014. Through all our ups and downs, a process that haiku is perfect to embrace, I’m grateful to the worldwide village of haiku poets who help to make NaHaiWriMo a welcoming home for haiku sharing. Please join me in thanking the following NaHaiWriMo daily writing prompters from its first ten years.
Scott Abeles Tash Adams Alee Imperial Albano Melissa Allen Dawn Apanius Crooked Arrow Sanjuktaa Asopa Johnny Baranski Marina Bellini Freddy Ben-Arroyo Alex Benedict Peggy Hale Bilbro Johannes S. H. Bjerg Gary Blankenship Katrina Lehmann Blount Brendan Bonsack Anne Burgevin Pris Campbell John Carley Marion Clarke Tamara Cobbiani Carlos Colón Pamela Cooper Aubrie Cox Gillena Cox Kat Creighton Karla Decker Susan Delphine Delaney Mike Duffy Andrew O. Dugas Andew O. Dugas (Haiku Andy) Kirsten Cliff Elliot Robert Franson Terri L. French Grace Galton | Pat Geyer Judith Gorgone Eider Green Rachel Green Hazel Hall Patty Hardin Devin Harrison Michele L. Harvey Tia Haynes Randall Herman Vincent Hoarau Cara Holman Lynne Jambor Kim Jeffs Reka Jellema John Johnson Annie Juhl Arvinder Kaur Roy Kindelberger Nicholas Klacsanzky Deborah P Kolodji Kris Kondo Jessica Malone Latham Michael Henry Lee Deborah Barbour Lundy Cindy Lutz Myron Lysenko Carole MacRury An Mayou Helen McCarthy Marietta McGregor Paul David Mena Cristina-Monica Moldoveanu Michael A. Moore |
Susan Murata Shrikaanth K. Murthy Andrea Piscitelli Narciso Christina Nguyen Michael Nickels-Wisdom Linda Papanicoloau Stella Pierides Jade Pisani Sandi Pray Ruthanne Price Vinay Ravindranath Michael Rehling Leslie A. Rose Violette Rose-Jones Jennifer Savage Dave Serjeant Maureen Sexton Deborah B. Shepherd Mary Stone Alan Summers Jennifer Thompson Corine Timmer Saf Toral Jessica Tremblay Anitha Varma Christine L. Villa Michael Dylan Welch Angie Werren Alison Williams Laura Williams Margo Williams Kathabela Wilson Sheila Windsor Stuart Zobel |
If It’s February, It Must Be Time for NaHaiWriMo
Read Michael Dylan Welch’s guest blog posting in celebration of NaHaiWriMo’s tenth anniversary, posted on 1 February 2020 to J. I. Kleinberg’s “The Poetry Department” blog. Please have a look! |