"The Cradle of American Haiku"
Festival 2008

featuring

Teaching Haiku in Schools and the Community

Homage to Raymond Roseliep

Mineral Point, Wisconsin
August 22–24, 2008

The first of what we hope will become an annual or biennial haiku festival is planned for the weekend of August 22–24, 2008, in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.

The series of gatherings will celebrate the seminal role of Midwesterners—including James and Gayle Bull, publishers of American Haiku, the first non-Japanese haiku journal; Father Raymond Roseliep, whose work brought about a whole school of American haiku writing; and Robert Spiess, longtime editor of Modern Haiku—in establishing American haiku.

Featured events include:

Friday evening, Aug. 22 - at the Foundry Bookstore

6:00 pm ~ Welcome reception hosted by Modern Haiku: Wisconsin cheese tasting, with wine and local beer

7:00 pm ~ Dinner on your own

8:00 pm ~ Featured reading by Edward Rielly, followed by an open haiku reading

Saturday morning, Aug. 23 - at the Mineral Point Opera House

9:00 am ~ “Teaching Haiku in Schools and the Community”—workshop, session chaired by Jerome Cushman. Participants include Francine Banwarth, Randy Brooks, Jerome Cushman, Bill Pauly, and Barbara Ressler

The purpose of this workshop is to promote and assist teachers and community educators in the use of haiku as a creative writing and self-expression activity for all ages. Five educators and poets from the region and across the country will share their talents and experiences in the teaching of haiku to students of various ages and situations. They will present a panel discussion and gather information about your needs as teachers. Participants in the workshop will divide into interest groups for further detailed discussions. Some of the topics for discussion will be: suggested definitions and some methods for encouraging student creation of haiku. Handouts will include bibliographies and list of recommended Web sites.

11:00 am ~ “Remembering the 1967 Symposium on English-Language Haiku in Platteville, Wis.” —Gayle Bull

11:30 am ~ Featured reading by Majorie Buettner

12:00 noon ~ Lunch on your own

Saturday afternoon, Aug. 23 - at the Mineral Point Opera House

1:30 pm ~ “Homage to Raymond Roseliep”—session chaired by Donna Bauerly

~ “Where Roots Tangle” (slide show about Roseliep’s ancestry and life)—Donna Bauerly

~ “Raymond Roseliep’s Love Poems”—Randy M. Brooks

~ “One More Roseliep”— Donna Bauerly

~ Round-table discussion of Roseliep’s legacy to the American haiku community

6:30 pm ~ Midwestern picnic - at the Foundry Bookstore

~ Featured reading by Roberta Beary from her acclaimed book, The Unworn Necklace

~ Festival Keynote address: “The Midwest—Cradle of American Haiku”—Lee Gurga

Sunday morning, Aug. 24:

9:00 am ~ Dutch-treat breakfast in a local cafe. Gather for the ginkô

9:30 am ~ Featured reading by Francine Banwarth

10:00 am ~ Ginkô (haiku walk) around Mineral Point led by Jerome Cushman

12:00 noon ~ Gathering in a cafe or at the Foundry to share haiku from the ginkô

Throughout the festival - at the Foundary Bookstore

Exhibit of sumi-e (black-ink drawings) and haiga (haiku paintings) by Lidia Rozmus

Check back at this Web site frequently to see updates in the Festival schedule.

Social events and featured readings will take place at Gayle Bull’s The Foundry Books, while the Mineral Point Opera House has been reserved for the main sessions.

Haiku book exhibitions and sales will be arranged through The Foundry Books. Authors and publishers with titles to sale should contact Gayle Bull at the address below.

Participation fees are being kept to an absolute minimum—just enough to cover facilities rental and other basic costs. Friday and Sunday events and the featured haiku redaings are free. Attendance at one session, morning or afternoon, on Saturday is $25; both Saturday sessions are $35.

The Saturday evening picnic (bratwursts, hamburgers, vegetarian walnut burgers, salads, Cornish pasty, and Cornish figgyhobbin) will be held inside and outside at the Foundry Bookstore; the cost will be $15 for food and soft drinks.

A wide range of lodging and food options are available in Mineral Point and nearby. Click here for a list of hotels, motels, and B&Bs.

Mineral Point is historic city midway between Madison, Wis., and Dubuque, Iowa, and easily accessible in less than an hour by car from either. The region is itself a tourist destination, and Festival attendees should consider spending a few extra days in the area to see sights such as Spring Green, Wis., home of Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright estate, and the world-class American Players Theatre, which performs Shakespeare in a natural amphitheater, the unbelievable House on the Rock, the Swiss village of New Glarus, Wis., the historical town of Galena, Ill., and Indian archaeological sites at Effigy Mounds National Monument and elsewhere on Iowa’s Mississippi bluffs—to name just a few.

A detailed festival program is being developed by Gayle Bull, Jerome Cushman, and Charles Trumbull. For more information, contact Charlie at trumbullc@comcast.net or by mail at c/o Modern Haiku, PO Box 7046, Evanston, IL, 60204-7046 or Gayle at info@foundrybooks.com.