Juxtapositions
As readers of the Positions blog on this site are aware, Juxtapositions: A Journal of Haiku Poetics & Culture is an experiment, an experiment in criticism. Modern haiku worldwide is a movement of many waves and yet modern haiku lacks a critical vocabulary adequate to its complex lines of develpment and so is often neglected by students of literature.
JUXTA is devoted to the modest proposal that haiku is a significant form of poetry but that the popular practice of haiku criticism, as exemplified in numerous books, blogs, and discussions, is underdeveloped. While tremendously vital, haiku discussions need to form dialogues with contemporary critiques of culture and literary criticism if haiku is ever to take its rightful place among the literary genres.
An outstanding board of Contributing Editors has been set up. A work in progress, the board includes: Dimitar Anakiev, David Barnhill, Randy Brooks, Allan Burns, Richard Gilbert, Raffael De Gruttola, Lee Gurga, Abigail Friedman, Jim Kacian, William LaFleur, Tom Lynch, Ian Marshall, Peipei Qiu, Jane Reichhold, Philip Rowland, Haruo Shirane, Charles Trumbull, and Michael Dylan Welch.
First Issue
The first issue is in the planning stages and a floorplan has become visible. We are planning, among others, two focus areas: Whence Haiku, anchored by an essay by Richard Gilbert, and Critical Terms, essays by various hands on key terms (e.g. moment, intuition, essence, imagination, ego, inner space, minimalism, organic form, true subject, etc.). Other areas of development include Encounters between non-haiku poets and haiku. There will be Essays: for example, Jane Reichhold will turn our attention to haiku as process and Raymond Oliver will compare on the sound of haiku in several Western languages. There will be Chronicles: Jim Kacian will cover experimenal haiku, and Charles Trumbull will cover as much territory as he can manage.
We are looking for essays about the influence of haiku on major poets – Rilke, Milosz, Paz, and others.
Please feel free to suggest topics you’d like to see explored in JUXTA.
Deadlines are as follows: April-June, we will be suggesting topics and receiving and discussing proposals from authors; all entries are due by August 30. Authors should be available for discussion in August and September. The issue will be shipped to THF in early December for design and publication.
NB: JUXTA is edited for the academic public as well as the broader haiku community. Each piece is considered a part of an ongoing conversation and each reflects the author’s awareness of genre, tradition and immediate context. The Board of Contributing Editors will be asked from time to time to vet a submission, and, once accepted, each contribution will be edited in keeping with Standard English. For less experienced writers, Alastair Fowler’s How to Write (Oxford 2006) is suggested as an up-to-date guide.
Contact Information
The senior editor of JUXTA is Tom D’Evelyn. After earning a doctorate in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, D’Evelyn held positions in journalism and editing, ran his own literary agency, and helped found Single Island Press in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is currently managing editor.
D’Evelyn welcomes inquiries about JUXTA. He can be reached at juxta _at_ thehaikufoundation _dot_ org (replace _at_ and _dot_ with the appropriate symbols). His postal address is:
Tom D’Evelyn
Single Island Press
379 State Street
Portsmouth NH 03801
