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Honorary Curator William J. Higginson

William J. Higginson
Honorary Curator, 2003-2004

Biography

Bill HigginsonPoet, non-fiction author, translator, teacher, and editor William J. Higginson, often known as Bill, was born December 17, 1938 in New York City and raised there and in Bergenfield, New Jersey. He received his B.A. with honors in English from Southern Connecticut State College. While in the U.S. Air Force he studied Japanese at Yale and served two years in Japan, where he began writing and translating. In 1968, Bill was one of the charter members of the Haiku Society of America, and later served as the group’s president.

In 1975, Higginson founded From Here Press in Paterson, New Jersey, publishing poetry chapbooks by Allen Ginsberg, Ruth Stone, and others. Higginson’s own books include The Haiku Handbook, Wind in the Long Grass (an anthology for children), The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World, translations such as Red Fuji: Selected Haiku of Yatsuka Ishihara, and several collections, including Paterson Pieces (poems), Death Is & Approaches to the Edge (poems and essays), and Surfing on Magma (poems). On the Internet, Bill edited the “Haiku and Related Forms” category of the Open Directory Project. His involvement with Japanese-style linked poetry is described on his website.

Higginson’s poems and essays appeared in numerous literary journals, anthologies, and encyclopedias, including Blue Stones and Salt Hay, Under a Gull’s Wing, The Teachers & Writers Guide to William Carlos Williams, World Poets, An Exaltation of Forms, and Poets of New Jersey. He led writing workshops for children and adults at schools and literary and arts festivals throughout North America, including the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festivals in New Jersey and the Border Book Festivals in New Mexico, and in Japan. He taught high school English, mathematics, and Japanese, and taught literature, composition, public speaking, and creative writing at Union County College, New Jersey.

Higginson’s work as a visiting poet in elementary and secondary schools and community arts programs was documented in New Jersey English Journal and in books from Teachers & Writers Collaborative, including Classics in the Classroom: Using Great Literature to Teach Writing (1999) and The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (2000).

 

Special Announcement

We are saddened to report that William J. Higginson passed away at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday, October 11, 2008, in New Jersey.

He was born in New York City in 1938, and was in his 70th year. Bill had asked to write his own biography for this page, which he was working on, and now that will not happen. We will add biographical information, sample poems, and other links to this page as soon as we can.

Bill’s contribution and dedication to haiku poetry over many decades was second to none. His books and essays about haiku have influenced students, teachers, and generations of poets writing haiku in English, and he will surely be revered by the haiku community on a par with Harold Henderson and R. H. Blyth.

The American Haiku Archives advisory board joins together in offering condolences to Bill’s family, especially to his beloved wife, Penny Harter.

 

Awards and Honors

Sora Award, Haiku Society of America, 2007

Member, Selection Committee for the Masaoka Shiki Prize in International Haiku, Matsuyama, Japan, 2000–2008

World Haiku Achievements Competition Grand Prize, World Haiku Festival, London, 2000

Translation Grant, Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, 1994

New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame, 1989

Merit Book Awards, Haiku Society of America, 1972, 1987, 1998

Fellowship in Poetry, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, 1977

 

Selected Haiku by William J. Higginson

The following poems by Bill Higginson are arranged loosely in chronological order, and span almost forty years, from 1969 to 2008. Also included are two sets of poems (not sequenced by Bill) on the themes of books & writing, and on aging. Not only was Bill a revered scholar and translator of haiku poetry, as well as an enthusiastic advocate for the genre, he was also an accomplished haiku poet himself.

A wet night
garbage cans all full
but the far one


                                                                    The clock
                                                                    chimes chimes and stops
                                                                    but the river . . .

Holding the water
held by it—
the dark mud.

                                                                    caterpillar
                                                                    atop the rock
                                                                    the rising tide

evening star
almost within
the moon’s half curve

                                                                    this spring rain
                                                                    the thief too
                                                                    curses his job

grey dawn
ice on the seats
of the rowboat

                                                                    the tick, tick
                                                                    of snow on the reeds . . .
                                                                    sparrow tracks

New Year’s Eve . . .
thieves have left my car open
in the falling snow

                                                                    commercial break—
                                                                    the cat and I
                                                                    head for the kitchen

the fence post
hangs upright in the washout—
mid-summer heat

                                                                    going over a bump
                                                                    the car ahead
                                                                    going over a bump

the old cat
hesitates on the doorsill—
a falling leaf

                                                                    summer storm . . .
                                                                    a shopping cart rolls past
                                                                    the end of the lot

winter twilight
only a few old bakers
in the potato bin

                                                                    crescent moon
                                                                    would I look at the clouds
                                                                    without it?

origami frog:
what old pond is he hoping
to find in the dusk?

 

Books and Writing

I look up
from writing
to daylight.

                                                                    writing again
                                                                    the tea water
                                                                    boiled dry

reading renku—
every stanza links with
the midwinter cricket

                                                                    thankful for
                                                                    the books just received . . .
                                                                    snow piling up

musty smell
forgotten . . . deep
into the text

                                                                    spring rain
                                                                    rereading my own book
                                                                    I fall asleep

Aging

Christmas concert
I sit in the seat of my
hospitalized friend

                                                                    misty rain—
                                                                    dry pavement under
                                                                    the ambulance

fireworks crashing
and fireflies so silent . . .
tomorrow the biopsy

                                                                    one maple leaf . . .
                                                                    end over end on the sand
                                                                    without a trace

 

Links

William J. Higginson Papers, 1950-2007
Coumbia University Library, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_7351663

William J. Higginson (personal website)
http://www.2hweb.net/wjhigginson/

Haikai Home
http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/main.html

Renku Home
http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/

From Here Press
http://fhp.2hweb.net/contents.html

Wordfield’s Haikai Pub Blog
https://haikaipub.wordpress.com/

William J. Higginson on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Higginson

William J. Higginson Author Page on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/William-J.-Higginson/e/B000APMKLC

Remembering Bill Higginson
http://www.graceguts.com/haibun/remembering-bill-higginson

This Perfect Rose: The Lasting Legacy of William J. Higginson
http://www.graceguts.com/essays/this-perfect-rose-the-lasting-legacy-of-william-j-higginson

The Democracy of Haiku (see the “Honoring William J. Higginson” section)
http://www.graceguts.com/introductions/the-democracy-of-haiku

WorldCat Archive of William J. Higginson Papers (Columbia University)
http://www.worldcat.org/title/william-j-higginson-papers-1950-2007/oclc/436915989
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AHigginson%2C+William+J.%2C&qt=hot_author

An announcement from Penny Harter about Bill’s passing, along with commentary and tributes, appears at

http://tobaccoroadpoet.blogspot.com/2008/10/bill-higginson-has-died.html

Additional tributes appear at

http://www.haikuoz.org/2008/10/tributes_to_william_j_higginso.html

http://ackworthborn.blogspot.com/2008/10/holding-water-held-by-it-dark-mud.html

A short biography and extensive bibliography are available at

http://renku.home.att.net/bios.html#Higginson

Another short biography with sample poems is available at

http://www.haiku-hia.com/rireki_higginson_en.html

An interview with Bill by Amazon.com appears at

http://renku.home.att.net/WJH-Amazon_com_Interview.html

New York Times - About Books - September 20, 1987
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/20/nyregion/about-books.html

Millikin University maintains a writer profile on Bill, with reader response essays, at

http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/writerprofiles/WilliamHigginson.html

If you know of other links we could add, please let us know.

Books by William J. Higginson

Higginson, William J. & Michael Lustbader. Butterfly Dreams: The Seasons Through Haiku and Photographs. Aliquippa, PA: Natural Tapestries Publishing, 2006. [CD of photographs by Lustbader paired with Japanese haiku translated by Higginson, 210 pages.] Web samples available at:
http://fhp.2hweb.net/scrapbook_bd/contents.html

Higginson, William J. Cycling Paterson: A Haiku/Senryu Sequence. Los Angeles, CA: Seer Ox, 1974. Signed.

Higginson, William J. Death Is & Approaches to the Edge. Fanwood, NJ: From Here Press, 1981.

Higginson, William J. Eastre. Paterson, NJ: From Here Press, 1975.

Higginson, William J. 4 Sequences. Summit, NJ: From Here Press, 2007. Broadside.

Higginson, William J. Haiku Compass: Directions in the Poetical Map of the United States of America. Tokyo: Haiku International Association, 1994.

Higginson, William J. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. New York: Kodansha International, 1985.

Higginson, William J. The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World. New York: Kodansha International, 1996.

Higginson, William J. Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac. New York: Kodansha International, 1996.

Higginson, William J. Itadakimasu: Essays on Haiku and Senryu in English. Kanona, NY: J & C Transcripts, 1971.

Higginson, William J. with Penny Harter. Met on the Road: A Transcontinental Haiku Journal. Foster City, CA: Press Here, 1993.

Higginson, William J. One-Line Haiku: Misunderstandings and Possibilities. Paterson, NJ: From Here Press, 1982. Article reprint.

Higginson, William J. Patterson Pieces: Poems 1969-1979. Fanwood, NJ: From Here Press, 1981.

Higginson, William J. & Penny Harter. A Summer Surgery & Waiting. Summit, NJ: From Here Press, 1981.

Higginson, William J., Editor. Wind in the Long Grass: A Collection of Haiku. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.

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