James Michael Kacian, an American haiku poet, editor, publisher, and public speaker was born on July 26, 1953, in Worcester, Massachusetts, then adopted and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts. He has lived in London, Nashville, Bridgton (Maine) and now resides in Winchester, Virginia. Kacian wrote his first mainstream poems in his teens, and published them in small poetry magazines beginning in 1970. He also wrote, recorded, and sold songs during his time in Nashville in the 1980s. Upon his return to Virginia in 1985 he discovered English-language haiku, for which he is best known.
In 1993, he founded Red Moon Press, and in the same year began editing the haiku journal South by Southeast. Kacian's Red Moon Press is the largest publisher of haiku and haiku-related books outside Japan, with a current catalog of over 60 titles in print, and producing some dozen titles a year, including 12 years of the award-winning annual Red Moon Anthology. This was followed in 1998 with the editorship of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America.
Having proposed a new global haiku association in 1999, Kacian co-founded the World Haiku Association with Ban'ya Natsuishi and Dimitar Anakiev. In September of 2000 the WHA held its inaugural conference in Tolmin, Slovenia.
From August to November of 2000, Kacian traveled to nine countries ... the UK, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan promoting a global haiku. Having invited haiku poets from around the world to submit their haiku to Frogpond, Kacian compiled and edited 2001’s XXIV:1 issue, featuring haiku from 24 countries.
In late 2008 Kacian formed and created The Haiku Foundation, a non-profit organization which focuses on archiving English-language haiku's first century while expanding its second, with an official start-date of January 6, 2009.
Kacian has written sixteen books of poetry, fourteen of which are dedicated to haiku or haiku-related genres. His poems have been translated into many languages.
(along with 29 other chosen haiku) is etched in a stone along the Katikati Haiku Pathway beside the Uretara Stream in New Zealand. (Poems were selected by the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee, New Zealand Poetry Society, and Catherine Mair.)
His essays have been cited in such works as:
"Rowland, Philip (Autumn 2008). "From Haiku to the Short Poem: Bridging the divide". Modern Haiku 39(3), pp.23-45 ISSN 0026-7821
Kacian's efforts on behalf of global haiku have been featured in:
Global Haiku and the work of Jim Kacian (Richard Gilbert, 2003)
And 30 of his selected haiku are featured at:
Mann Library’s Daily Haiku
with an additional 17 personally selected in December, 2008 at:
Jim Kacian — Essays & Selected Haiku
Kacian's work has also been anthologized in, among others:
The Haiku Anthology, 3rd ed. (Cor van den Heuvel) Norton, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04743-1
Haiku Moment (ed. Bruce Ross) Tuttle, 1993 ISBN 0 8048 1820 7
Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (ed. William J. Higginson)
The New Haiku (eds. John Barlow & Martin Lucas)
Haiku Mind (ed. Patricia Donegan)
Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (ed. Bruce Ross)
How to Haiku (Bruce Ross)
Haiku: A Poet's Guide (Lee Gurga)
Baseball Haiku (ed. Cor van den Heuvel)
Haiku: Poetry Ancient & Modern (ed. Jackie Hardy) (also German and French editions)
Haiku International Anthology (ed. Ban’ya Natsuishi) www.terebess.com
Poems of Consciousness (Richard Gilbert) Red Moon Press 2008 ISBN 978-1893959729
His poem,
my fingerprints
on the dragonfly
in amber
serves as the departure point for Richard Gilbert’s monograph on contemporary haiku technique, The Disjunctive Dragonfly, defining innovative techniques in English-language haiku.
Kacian's haiku have won or placed in many national and international haiku competitions in English (and occasionally other languages as well), including:
The Kusamakura International Haiku Competition (Japan, 2008)
The Winter Moon International Haiku Competition (2008)
The Cascina Macondo Concorso Internazionale de Poesia Haiku in Lingua Italiana 5th Edizione (Italy, 2007)
The 17th Ito-En Haiku Competition Judge's Award (Japan, 2007)
The Hawai’i Education Association Haiku Competition (2007)
The Harold G. Henderson Haiku Competition Prize (Haiku Society of America) (2005)
The British Haiku Society James W. Hackett International Haiku Award (2001)
Poem of the Year, 2009, The Heron's Nest, Volume XI (ISBN to follow)
Individual collection awards
The books listed below have won The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards for outstanding achievement in the genre.
Long After
Presents of Mind
Six Directions: Haiku and Field Notes
Border Lands
As a publisher
Kacian’s work as publisher has also been highly recognized:
In 1996 his production of John Elsberg’s A Week in the Lake District was a finalist for Virginia Poetry Book of the Year (Virginia State Library).
In August 2000, Knots ... The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry (1999), which Kacian co-edited with Dimitar Anakiev, won second place in the World Haiku Achievement Competition.
In October 2008 he won the Ginyu Award for Outstanding Contribution to World Haiku (Ginyu issue 40, pp. 13-15).
Kacian has read in many parts of the world, including international poetry festivals in New York, New Orleans, London, Oxford, Belgrade, Vilanice, Ohrid, Skopje, Sofia, Sydney, Hobart, Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, Tokyo, Tenri, Kyoto, Kumamoto, Los Angeles, Toronto and Washington D.C. Some of his speeches are listed below:
"So:Ba" given at the International Haiku Conference (SUNY Plattsburgh, NY, July 2008); published serially in Frogpond XXXI:3 2008 p.73 (part one) ISSN 1089-9421, and forthcoming.
"Bridges" given at the Haiku North America International Conference (Winston-Salem, NC, August 2007); published as "The Haiku Hierarchy," Modern Haiku 39(1), Spring 2008, ISSN 0026-7821.
"State of the Art: Haiku in North America 2007" Second European Haiku Conference (Vadstena, Sweden, June 2007).
"Dag Hammarskjöld: Haiku Poet and Photographer" (New York, New York, January 2006 ... book release of A String Untouched).
Welcome Address (Sofia, Bulgaria, May 2005 ... World Haiku Association Conference).
Welcome Address (Tokyo, Japan, October 2003 ... World Haiku Association Conference)
"Around the World as Briefly as Possible", Pacific Rim Haiku Conference (November 2002, Los Angeles, California) published in Connecticut Review XXVII:2, Fall 2005 ISSN 00106216.
"Looking and Seeing: How Haiga Works" given at the Haiku Society of American National Meeting, September 2002; published in Simply Haiku 2:5 (Autumn 2004); reprinted in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2004 (Red Moon Press), pp. 126-153.
"Tapping the Common Well" (foreword) in Knots: The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry Red Moon Press, 1999. ISBN 978-9619071502.
"Beyond Kigo ... In Due Season" in Acorn Supplement #1 (2000) ISSN 1521-138X.
"Van Gogh's Shoes" in Valley Voices 8:1 ISSN 1553-7668.
Renga-Daddy: A Kasen Renga between Basho, Boncho, Kyorai and Shiho in the manner of Tristan Tzara based on "The First Winter Rain" from The Monkey's Straw Raincoat in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Basho's Death; Frogpond XIX:1 ISSN.
His advocacy, along with that of such poets as Marlene Mountain and Janice Bostok, of single-line haiku in English has initiated renewed interest in this form following its rare usage during the 20th century. His work also champions several innovative techniques (as cited by Richard Gilbert in The Disjunctive Dragonfly and in his book Poems of Consciousness). Kacian's own critical writings elaborate some of these aesthetic innovations.
