Fred Melden will be hosting a conversation with Maggie Chula at 7 p.m. Monday, June 29 at the Hillsboro Main Library, 2850 Brookwood Parkway.
The Haiku poet Matsuo Basho wrote “when writing about the bamboo, become the bamboo. When writing about the pine become the pine.” For twelve years, Maggie Chula lived the life of a poet in a ramshackle Japanese house, wandering around mountain temples and gardens writing haiku. She also taught English and creative writing at Kyoto universities and studied the arts of flower arrangement and woodblock printing. Her seven collections of haiku, haibun, and tanka include “Grinding my ink,” which received a Haiku Society of America Book Award.
Maggie currently serves as president of the Tanka Society of America and will talk about this little-known form as well as haiku, haibun, and how living in Kyoto inspired her writing. Not just a reading, but an event for audience members to interact and ask questions about word choices, styles, or the writer’s development of his / her art. It’s an informal atmosphere to help us all better understand the craft of writing.