Haiku: A Poet's Guide

Excellent Book

Lee Gurga was born and raised in Chicago, and currently lives in Lincoln, Illinois with wife Jan, sons Ben, A.J., and Alex, dog Fay, and five haflinger horses. He first became interested in haiku in 1966, but he did not start publishing until 1987. He was soon receiving awards for his haiku, and High/Coo Press published his first collection, a mouse pours out, in 1988. In 1992 he was co-editor of Midwest Haiku Anthology (with Randy Brooks). Gurga has received first place in a number of haiku competitions. In 1998 he was honored with an Illinois Arts Council Poetry Fellowship for his work in haiku. He is currently associate editor of Modern Haiku, the longest-running journal of haiku and haiku studies in English.

An active member of the Haiku Society of America, he served as Vice-president in 1991 and again in 1995-96, and served as President in 1997. As a leader of HSA he was instrumental in organizing an International Haiku Conference in Chicago in 1995, and in 1997 he led a delegation of prominent English language haiku poets and editors to the second Joint Conference in Tokyo.

He is currently editor of Modern Haiku, the longest-running journal of haiku and haiku studies in English . He is also poetry editor for Illinois Times and haiku columnist for Solares Hill newspaper (Key West, Florida).