Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Teji Sethi Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet: Rupa Anand A Thursday Feature 14th May 2026 Documenting Personal Stories in Haibun Like other Japanese short forms, I presume haibun also saw a literary migration to the Indian subcontinent around the same time as haiku. When I first came to haiku, I dared not attempt haibun as the form looked too prosaic, and I was always

Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Teji Sethi Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet: Seren Fargo Introduction The Fragmented Prose "Preparing to write a haibun is like stalking. You must be patient, circling the idea or experience many times, looking at it from different angles. Should it be confronted head-on or obliquely, truthfully or disguised? It can sometimes take me weeks (or as we’ll see, years) t

Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Billie Dee Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet: Emily Dickinson Introduction This five-part series explores haibun written in response to poems from the Western tradition. I think of this pairing as a kind of literary ekphrasis, not commentary, exactly, but entering a canonical field, listening, and answering back. A Thursday Feature 30th April 2026 I have saved the mo

Editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Billie Dee Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet: Robert Hass Introduction This five-part series explores haibun written in response to poems from the Western tradition. I think of this pairing as a kind of literary ekphrasis, not commentary, exactly, but entering a canonical field, listening, and answering back. A Thursday Feature 23rd April 2026 This week, we turn to R

Editors on haikuKATHA : Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Billie Dee Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet : W alt Whitman Introduction This five-part series explores haibun written in response to poems from the Western tradition. I think of this pairing as a kind of literary ekphrasis, not commentary, exactly, but entering a canonical field, listening, and answering back. A Thursday Feature 16th April 2026 This week, we tu

Editors on haikuKATHA : Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Billie Dee Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet : Rainer Maria Rilke Introduction This five-part series explores haibun written in response to poems from the Western tradition. I think of this pairing as a kind of literary ekphrasis, not commentary, exactly, but entering a canonical field, listening, and answering back. A Thursday Feature 9th April 2026 This week, w

Editors on haikuKATHA : Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Billie Dee Host: Srinivas Sambangi Featured Poet : William Stafford Introduction: English-language haibun has moved well beyond the travel-journal model associated with Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Deep North.* It can hold lyric prose, lineation, concrete play, and newer experimental forms that refuse neat labels. This five-part series explores haibun written in respons

Editors on haikuKATHA : Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Linda Papanicolaou Featured Poet : J. Zimmerman Host: Srinivas Sambangi A Thursday Feature 26th March 2026 Missing Man J. Zimmerman Mid-November after I rake the leaves I stand at Central and First, holding the Stars and Bars. All of them died in Nam — my brother Joe, my cousin Freddy, mom's youngest brother Jack. Sometimes I just have to come out on the streets and s

Editors on haikuKATHA : Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Editor: Linda Papanicolaou Featured Poet : Michael Rehling Host: Srinivas Sambangi A Thursday Feature 19th March 2026 in my mind i still need a place to go Michael Rehling casual as the moon. my mind wanders through the big dipper and into countless stars. as i gather myself deep into old age and the sky seems to have a strange pull. wondering where will i go when this body c