Concise Lines

On May 27th Wordstorm presents three poets who have made haiku and other Japanese forms foundational to their poetic practice.

kjmunro, Terry Ann Carter, and Yvonne Blomer will share from their own work with a panel discussion about their experience and knowledge of Japanese poetics to follow. Audience members are invited to participate in the panel discussion.    The event is free to attend.    

Come discover the rich landscapes of mind and nature that emerge in haiku poetics. This seemingly uncomplicated Japanese form derives from a rich heritage that focuses on the concise expression of keen observations. Writers of all genres can unlock new ways to enhance their own practice through an exploration of Japanese poetic form.

Katherine  J. Munro (kjmunro) is originally from Vancouver and moved to the Yukon Territory in 1991. She is Membership Secretary for Haiku Canada and a  member of The League of Canadian Poets, The Federation of BC Writers,  and The Haiku Society of America. In 2014, she founded ‘solstice haiku’,  a monthly haiku discussion group in Whitehorse that she continues to  facilitate. Since 2018 she has curated a weekly blog feature for The  Haiku Foundation, now managed with guest editors. She has recently completed the online program called Vancouver Manuscript Intensive,  revising a poetry manuscript with her mentor, Betsy Warland. Her work  placed first in The League of Canadian Poets ‘Very Small Verse Contest’  in 2019, made the Poetry Short List in The Federation of BC Writers 2021 Literary Contests, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her  debut poetry collection is contractions (Red Moon Press, 2019).

Poet and paper artist, Terry Ann Carter is the author of eight  collections of long form poetry, two haiku guidebooks, and five haiku  chapbooks; she has edited four haiku anthologies. As past president of  Haiku Canada, founder of and facilitator for KaDo Ottawa (2001-2012) and Haiku Arbutus Victoria Study Group (2014-present), she has given haiku and book arts workshops around the world. Tokaido (Red Moon Press, 2017) won a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award;  Blue Moon: The Ono no Komachi Poems (with book artist Heather MacDonald) is forthcoming from JackPine Press and First I Fold the Mountain was launched by Black Moss Press in April.

Yvonne Blomer is the author of the critically acclaimed travel memoir Sugar Ride: Cycling from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur, and three books of poetry, most recently As if a Raven.She works as an editor, teacher and mentor in poetry and memoir. She  served as the city of Victoria poet laureate from 2015–2018. In 2018 Yvonne was the Artist-in-Residence at the Robert Bateman Centre and created Ravine, Mouse, a Bird’s Beak, a chapbook of ekphrastic ecological poetry in response to Bateman’s art. In 2017 Yvonne edited the anthology Refugium: Poems for the Pacific (Caitlin  Press) with poets responding to their connection to the Pacific from  the west coast of North America and as far away as Japan and New  Zealand. Sweet Water: Poems for the Watersheds is the second in a trilogy of water-based poetry anthologies published by Caitlin Press and edited by Yvonne. She is currently working on a collaborative collection of multi-genre writing with poet and author, Jenna Butler, titled Desire Paths: Field Notes on Women, Land and Body.