The Third International Haiku Conference took place on 13-15 September 2024, at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology in Kraków, Poland. Organized by the Polish Haiku Association, the event brought together nearly 40 participants from diverse countries including the USA, UK, Poland, Hungary, Japan, Bulgaria, The Netherlands, Italy, Ireland, and North Macedonia. The British Haiku Society was represented by Iliyana Stoyanova (Acting BHS President and Blithe Spirit editor), award-winning poet and Modern Haiku editor Roberta Beary, and Maya Daneva (editor of the BHS newsletter the Brief).

Notable Speakers and Participants

The conference featured an impressive line-up of renowned haiku poets and scholars:

• Jim Kacian (Keynote Speaker) – In Search of +
• Emiko Miyashita – Four Seasons: How They Came and Are Gone (online)
• Rebeka Sára Szigethy – Contextualizing homogeneity – a reading of Cor van den Heuvel’s „tundra”
• Agnes Savich – Haiku from my childhood in Poland: how to turn memories into current haiku
• Roberta Beary – How to Haibun with Roberta Beary
• Ádám T. Bogár ­– Found Haiku and/as Collage
• Marta Chocilowska – Spojrzenie na haiku w Polsce (Focus on Haiku in Poland)
• Agnieszka Umeda – Haiku – niedokończony rysunek tuszem w poetyce polskiej (Haiku – an unfinished ink drawing in Polish poetics)

Ginko and Haiku Competition

On the final day, attendees participated in a ginko (haiku walk) followed by a haiku competition. Maya Daneva emerged as the winner with her evocative haiku:

swollen river…
what our conversation
becomes

Anthology and Haiga Exhibition

The organizers compiled a remarkable anthology featuring works by the participants which were shared during an open reading on the first day. British Haiku Society members Roberta Beary, Maya Daneva, and Iliyana Stoyanova contributed the following haiku:

gravestone
tinged with acid rain
memorial roses (RB)

wild violets
just enough to color
my day (MD)

snowless winter
a black lace of pines
frames the sunset (IS)

As part of the program, a haiga exhibition was held, featuring photo haiga by Iliyana Stoyanova:

The conference proved to be an unforgettable experience, filled with discussions, presentations, and creative exchanges among this international gathering of haiku enthusiasts.

Write-up by Iliyana Stoyanova

Group photo by Irena Iris Szewczyk