Level: This is an advanced course, suitable for writers who are already intermediate-level or above in writing three-line haiku. If you are relatively new to haiku, we recommend taking one of our regular haiku courses first, to get the full benefit from this one. In the meantime, our advice is to keep reading haiku!
No. of Assignments and Feedback: 5
Group Size: up to 5
Course Description: Even more minimalist than haiku, the "monoku" is a poem in one short line. They’ve become increasingly popular and more widely published in journals and anthologies. So if a single short line is the shape of monoku, what is the substance of this tiny haiku derivative? This course will encourage you to consider what a monoku is, for yourself as a writer, and will give deep feedback on the poems you write over five assignments. The tutor is award-winning and widely published monoku writer, Alan Summers. At the end of the course, you will have ten monoku written over five submissions, with lots of notes for further ideas for monoku-writing. As with most of our online courses, participants will be sent the feedback on everyone’s work, as well as their own, in a shared learning experience.
Lead Tutor for haiku; tanka; haibun; senryu; and tanka stories.
Alan is a Japan Times award-winning writer, and multi-award winning poet for haiku, plus a Pushcart Prize, and Best Small Fictions nominated poet for haibun.
He’s been President of the United Haiku & Tanka Society (2017 to 2021), and General Secretary of the British Haiku Society (1998-2000).
Alan holds a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University (U.K. 2007-2008), and a Diploma for Creative Writing from the University of Bristol (U.K. 2000-2001).
In September 2015 NHK TV of Japan made a documentary about Alan's work: http://tinyurl.com/NHKHaikuJourney
Alan’s work regularly appears in haikai genre journals, and prominent anthologies, including Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years (W. W. Norton 2013).
He has extensive experience as a tutor and workshop facilitator in both live and online settings. Alongside this he’s also an experienced editor for anthologies and journals. Alan’s been an essayist, article writer, critic, book reviewer, international competition judge, co-founder, and founder of various haiku & haibun journals.
Alan is currently editor-in-chief for The Haiku Reader anthology series, and opened with the first presentation at the Haiku Society of America’s 2022 National Virtual Conference (Saturday, June 4, 2022) taking questions about the anthology.
Cost: £210
Early Bird Cost: £195 if booking by the end of 2nd January 2024
Please book at the link below.