Honorary Curator Fay Aoyagi
Fay Aoyagi
Honorary Curator, 2023-2024
Appointment Announcement
The American Haiku Archives advisory board is pleased to announce the appointment of Fay Aoyagi as the 2023–2024 honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in Sacramento. This honor recognizes her wide impact on English-language haiku through her translations, her own books of poems, and her long service to haiku. Her service has included four years as president of the Haiku Society of America (2016–2019), coordinating the Haiku Poets of Northern California’s rengay contest since 2003, and serving as an associate editor of The Heron’s Nest since 2013.
She has published three award-winning haiku collections, Chrysanthemum Love (2003), In Borrowed Shoes (2006), and Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks (2011), and curates the “Blue Willow Haiku World” blog [https://fayaoyagi.wordpress.com/], presenting her daily translations of contemporary Japanese haiku (now more than 5,000).
Originally from Tokyo, Fay immigrated to the United States in 1984. In 1995, after moving to San Francisco from New York City, she started writing haiku in English, and has lived again in San Francisco, California since the late 1990s. Fay is also a dojin (leading member) of the Japanese haiku groups Ten’i and Aki. For decades she has been a significant bridge between contemporary Japanese and North American haiku, holding a unique place in the relationship between these two unfolding literary histories.
We are pleased to celebrate Fay Aoyagi, and to bestow this honor from the American Haiku Archives, which seeks to preserve and promote haiku and related poetry throughout the North American continent. The following are six of Fay’s haiku:
cold rain
my application
to become a crab
Independence Day
I let him touch
a little bit of me
New Year’s Eve bath—
I failed to become
a swan
Hiroshima Day—
I lean into the heat
of the stone wall
low winter moon
just beyond the reach
of my chopsticks
homecoming
the unfamiliar feel
of once-familiar coins
The AHA advisory board is delighted to pay tribute to Fay Aoyagi as the twenty-seventh honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.
~Michael Dylan Welch, American Haiku Archives Advisory Board Co-chair
Honorary Curator Reading on October 1, 2023
Fay Aoyagi - October 1, 2023
American Haiku Archives celebrated Fay Aoyagi as its 2023–24 honorary curator with a Zoom event on October 1, 2023. Fay read a selection of her haiku, introduced by Patricia Machmiller, with AHA cochair Michael Dylan Welch serving as MC.
You may view a video featuring her haiku and haibun online.
https://clipchamp.com/watch/U8Vtv42b5js
Here is the introduction of Fay Aoyagi by Patricia J. Machmiller:
Celebrating Fay Aoyagi
Fay Aoyagi was born in 1956 in Tokyo, Japan. She studied English from middle school through college. She was fortunate to live near Kyoko Matsuoka, the Japanese translator of the Paddington bear series. Ms. Matsuoka opened her private library to young people in the neighborhood. Fay said without this library she would not have been exposed to the many exciting books for children by American and British authors as she was. She grew up reading Kazuo Ishiguro, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Irving, and Haruki Murakami.
Fay emigrated to the United States in 1984. She lived in New York, planning to stay for six months. But then her stay lasted twelve years. She got her green card and began working for Chris Welas, an Oscar-winning special effects expert who lived in San Rafael. And so, in 1995, Fay moved to San Francisco.
Fay’s haiku career began in elementary school where she was exposed to the ancient masters; she was not impressed. “Who cares about a frog in an old pond, anyway?” she thought. However, in 1995, right after she moved to San Francisco, she changed her mind, thanks to hearing English translations of Japanese haiku at a bookstore in San Francisco (A Long Rainy Season: Contemporary Japanese Women’s Poetry, edited and translated Leza Lowitz, Miyuki Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka, Stone Bridge Press, 1994). She says she was shocked to find how beautiful haiku sounded in English! She also hadn’t known until then, that people were writing haiku in English.
Today Fay is a professional interpreter; she is haiku poet writing in Japanese and English and a member of the Japanese haiku groups Ten’i and Aki. In the United States she’s a member of the Haiku Society of America; she served as president from 2016 to 2019. She’s also a member of the Haiku Poets of Northern California and has coordinated the HPNC rengay contest since 2003. She’s written three award-winning haiku collections, Chrysanthemum Love (2003), In Borrowed Shoes (2006), and Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks (2011). She curates the “Blue Willow Haiku World” blog, presenting her translations of contemporary Japanese haiku, which has now showcased more than 5,000 poems. Fay is co-compiler of the Haikupedia article “San Francisco International Rengay Contest.”
One last story about Fay’s haiku journey: She told me when she started writing haiku as an adult that she became a frequent reader at an open-mic session in a neighborhood café where she met Jerry Kilbride. Lee Gurga was looking for a Japanese translator for the international conference in Chicago and Jerry introduced her to him. She attended an HSA meeting held in San Francisco and became a friend of Lee, Garry Gay, and Bill Higginson. When she published her first book, Chrysanthemum Love, Higginson wrote a very favorable review. Fay says she remembers Jerry calling her excitedly, saying, “Fay, you’ve become a star!”
And so she has.
~ ~ ~
Selected Haiku by Fay Aoyagi
From Chrysanthemum Love (Blue Willow Press, 2003)
intact zero fighter
at the Smithsonian—
cherry blossom rain
for the rabbits
on the misty moon
… fado
cold rain
my application
to become a crab
August waves
I tell my history
to jellyfish
Independence Day
I let him touch
a little bit of me
citizenship interview
the officer’s accent
thicker than mine
migrating birds—
the weight
of my first voters’ guide
fallen camellias—
I learn the name
of the baby with his eyes
New Year’s Eve bath—
I fail to become
a swan
New Year’s mirror—
I practice the smile
of a dictator
From In Borrowed Shoes (Blue Willow Press, 2006)
the hunter and the hunted
a black balloon becomes
a hole in the sky
ants out of a hole—
when did I stop playing
the red toy piano?
monologue
of the deep sea fish
misty stars
withered grass—
footsteps of an assassin
become mine
lacy gloves
will I metamorphose
into Vivian Leigh?
Hiroshima Day—
I lean into the heat
of the stone wall
Nagasaki Anniversary
I push
the mute button
these stones
with a story inside—
autumn deepens
a hole in my sweater
I ask him one more time
what he meant
I look for traces
of Santa’s reconnaissance
frosty morning
From Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks (Blue Willow Press, 2011)
cauliflower—
another day without
an adventure
low winter moon
just beyond the reach
of my chopsticks
rumble of the metro
a queue of city crabs
inches forward
handcuffed lobsters
in the water tank
A-bomb Anniversary
Hiroshima Day
multi-color threads
on the weaving machine
icy rain—
at the bottom of the lake
a door to yesterday
playing
rochambeau
the winter moon wins
simmering tofu—
father asks where I intend
to be buried
plum blossoms
a specimen of my dream
sent to the lab
night ocean
death’s puppeteer
clears his throat
After Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks
kaleidoscope—
I turn my last year
by thirty degrees
Frogpond 36:2, Spring/Summer 2013
mirror-tocracy of frozen moon and me
Acorn 34, Spring/Summer 2015
undone button I delete myself
Acorn 36, Spring 2016
I pretend I am
an obedient daughter
winter cherry blossoms
Mariposa 37, Autumn/Winter 2018
opening
the north facing window
a piano goes for a walk
Modern Haiku 49.2, Summer 2018
cucumbers
I am 15%
water goblin
Mariposa 37, Autumn/Winter 2017
in the center
of my Venn diagram
withered chrysanthemum
Frogpond 44:2, Summer/Spring 2021
spring mud
the hyphen
before American
Frogpond 44:2, Summer/Spring 2021
I
dent
it(ch)y
Modern Haiku 52.3, Autumn 2021
of fireflies
by fireflies
for fireflies
Mariposa 45, Autumn/Winter 2021
cucumbers
and sea cucumbers
at diversity training
Visiting the Wind: 2021 Haiku Society of America Membership Anthology
jellyfish
dancing
in hiragana
Acorn 47, Fall 2021
rug sale
one of them
no longer flies
Kingfisher 5, May 2022
in
in her
inheritance
Frogpond 45:2, Spring/Summer 2022
summer
muscle memory
of a paper plane
Frogpond 45:3, Autumn 2022
homecoming
the unfamiliar feel
of once-familiar coins
Acorn 49, Fall 2022
departing spring
the erhu
plays dusk
Mariposa 47, Autumn winter 2022
Basho’s Day
a serious talk
with a pine
Frogpond 45:3, Winter 2022
salamander
gerrymandering
river stones
Mariposa 48, Spring/Summer 2023
all day long
spring waves playing
hana ichi monme
Acorn 50, Spring 2023
Snow Woman
undergoing
apoptosis
Frogpond 46.2, Spring/Summer 2023
Haiku Collections
Aoyagi, Fay. Hachigatsu (August). San Francisco, CA:1995.
Aoyagi, Fay, Alex Benedict, Alice Benedict, June Hymas, Lynne Leach, Patricia Machmiller, Kiyoko Tokutomi. Seven Poets. San Francisco, CA:1997.
Aoyagi, Fay. Six Haiku. San Francisco, CA:1997.
Aoyagi, Fay. December Dance: Solo Rengay. San Francisco, CA: 1998.
Aoyagi, Fay. Chrysanthemum Love. San Francisco, CA: Blue Willow Press, 2003.
Aoyagi, Fay. In Borrowed Shoes. San Francisco, CA: Blue Willow Press, 2006.
Aoyagi, Fay. Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks. San Francisco, CA: Blue Willow Press, 2011. First place, Merit Book Awards sponsored by the Haiku Society of America.
Anthologies
Anderson, Kay, Editor. Beneath Cherry Blossoms. San Francisco, CA: Two Autumns Press, 1997.
Benedict, Alice, Editor. The Open Sky: 1996 Members Anthology. San Jose, CA: Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, 1997.
Moonlight Changing Direction. Oakland, CA: Two Atutumns Press, 2008.
Machmiller, Patricia, Editor. Bending Reeds: Yuki Teiki Haiku Society Members Anthology 2012. San Jose, CA: Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, 2012.
Kacian, Jim, Editor with Philip Rowland and Allan Burns. Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
Beary, Roberta and Lenard D. Moore, Editors. Seven. Durham, NC; Jacar Press, 2014.
Stevenson, John, Editor. Nest Feathers: Selected Haiku from the First 15 Years of the Heron’s Nest. Heron’s Nest, 2015.
Essays & Reviews on Fay Aoyagi
Higginson, William J. Book review of Chrysanthemum Love, Modern Haiku 35.2, Summer 2004.
Lanoue, David. “Something with Wings: Fay Aoyagi’s Haiku Inner Landscape,” Modern Haiku 40:2, Summer 2009.
Miller, Paul. “Field Note 3: Life-Changing Haiku,” Haiku Foundation website, 9/14/2013..
Translations & Edited Collections
Natsuishi, Ban’ya. Translated by Fay Aoyagi & Jim Kacian. Transparent Current: Haiku from The Inaugural World Haiku Association Conference. Tokyo: Ginyu Press, 2000.
Tokutomi, Kiyoko. Translated by Patricia J. Machmiller and Fay Aoyagi. Kiyoko’s Sky: The Haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi. Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2002.
Stevenson, John, Editor. Ferris Gilli, Paul MacNeil, Fay Aoyagi, Billie Wilson, and Scott Mason, Associate Editors. Nest Feathers: Selected Haiku from the First 15 Years of the Heron’s Nest. Heron’s Nest, 2015.
Web Links
Fay Aoyagi honorary curator Zoom reading on October 1, 2023.
https://clipchamp.com/watch/U8Vtv42b5js
Blue Willow Haiku World (daily translation of contemporary Japanese haiku)
https://fayaoyagi.wordpress.com
Fay Aoyagi Special Presentation for the Haiku Poets of Northern California.
On August 21, 2022, she gave a presentation on contemporary Japanese haiku.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etIdxwPShaA
Featured Poet: Fay Aoyagi. Simply Haiku: A Quarterly of Japanese Short Form Poetry, Winter 2005, volume 3, number 4.
https://simplyhaiku.com/SHv4n1/haiku/Aoyagi.html
Mann Library's Daily Haiku featured Fay Aoyagi for the month of March 2008.
https://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/fay-aoyagi/
