Michael Dylan Welch

Poet laureate of Redmond, Washington, 2013-2015. Founder of National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com), 2010. Longtime vice president of the Haiku Society of America. Cofounded Haiku North America conference, 1991, and American Haiku Archives, 1996. Founded Tanka Society of America, 2000, president for first 5 years, currently webmaster, president again starting in 2018. Founder and director of the Seabeck Haiku Getaway, since 2008. Former editor of Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem, Cascade, and Woodnotes journals, and current editor of First Frost. Editor/publisher of and Press Here haiku and tanka books, since 1989. Board member of Washington Poets Association for ten years. Contributing editor to Spring: The Journal of the E. E. Cummings Society. Curates monthly SoulFood Poetry Night and Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP) readings. President of RASP since 2018. Formerly coordinator of Seattle's Haiku Northwest group. Focuses on haiku, but also writes longer poetry, translations, essays, and book reviews. Presented papers for American Literature Association, American Literary Translators Association, Haiku North America, Lewis Carroll Society. Keynote speaker for Haiku International Association convention in Tokyo, 2013. Gives frequent readings and workshops. Poetry translated into more than twenty languages. Latest books are Seven Suns / Seven Moons (in collaboration with Tanya McDonald), Jumble Box, Off the Beaten Track: A Year in Haiku, Becoming a Haiku Poet, and Fire in the Treetops, among other books.