Todor Bikov

(12 December 1956 – 24 May 2016)

Todor Bikov was born on 12 December 1956 in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. He graduated the Theological Seminary“St John of Rila” andholds a Master of Diplomacy and International relations. Resided and worked in Plovdiv since 1983. Bikov was a widely published poet, publicist, political scientist, and art critic. He was a lecturer at Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”. He worked in the 42nd National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria (2013-2014) as a senior expert in the Committee on Religions and Parliamentary Ethics; also worked as a freelance journalist and associate in the "Literature, Art, Culture" section of Radio Plovdiv, head of the "Society" and "Culture" department in the Plovdiv News (Пловдивски новини) newspaper and editor of the Glas(Глас) regional newspaper.

Bikov was founder and editor-in-chief of the Art Club (Арт клуб) newspaper (1994-2004). In 2003 along with Ivanka Yankova he co-founded the Haiku Club-Plovdiv (HCP) and later in 2005 he compiled and edited the bilingual anthology Прагове/Thresholds published by HCP and the Club of Cultural Figures in Plovdiv. In 2005 he participated in the 3rd World Haiku Association (WHA) Conference in Bulgaria and organised the delegates’ visit to Plovdiv and meetings with the HCP members. He was also an active member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers and five terms chairman of the Club of Cultural Figures in Plovdiv.

Bikov’s poems, articles, reviews, studies, etc. have been published in national anthologies (the most significant being his inclusion with five poems in the Anthology "Bulgarian Poetry of the XXI Century", published in 2015), in the Bulgarian and international press, in scientific collections and publications, broadcasted on Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Radio Plovdiv and many other electronic media. He has published six collections of poems (1990-2016) incl. Стихосложения: цикъл хайку (Stihoslozheniya: Haiku Cycle, Sofia, 2012). His last poetry book was published shortly after his untimely death on 24 May 2016.

Selected haiku:

a storm is raving, then subsiding –
a shadow
cast by yet another shadow

a high and slender poplar –
a heron standing tall
is building a nest

cheerful warbling fills
the lover’s nests
it’s springtime

(Прагове/Thresholds, bilingual anthology, Plovdiv, 2005)

*

tidal wave
the land recedes
in front of the fish

thunder in broad daylight
ball lightning
chokes the throat

in the winter I read
and wrote a lot –asnowman...
no, a bookman

dragonfly over the river -
a sunny walk
on the ridge of the day

(Стихосложения: цикъл хайку(Stihoslozheniya: Haiku Cycle), Sofia, 2012)

*

a shadow hides
under the bird’s wing
July day

a floppy wheat ear
the smell of bread
floats around

frozen sunset
over the river
at home – embers

(Отвъд думите/Beyond Words, haiku anthology, Farago, Sofia, 2018)

Sources:

https://bikov.wordpress.com/

https://sbp.bg/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%8F%D1%82-%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D1%80-%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2/

https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/todor-bikov/

https://haikupedia.org/article-haikupedia/haiku-club-plovdiv-%d1%85%d0%b0%d0%b9%d0%ba%d1%83-%d0%ba%d0%bb%d1%83%d0%b1-%d0%bf%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b4%d0%b8%d0%b2/

https://e-lit.info/autors/1105-todor-bikov.html

Bob Lucky

born:15 August, 1956, USA
current residence: Portugal

Bob Lucky is the author of Ethiopian Time (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Conversation Starters in a Language No One Speaks(SurVision Books, 2018), My Thology: Not Always True But Always Truth (Cyberwit, 2019), and the e-chapbook What I Say to You (proletaria.org, 2020).

Oscar Luparia

Born 1956 in Vercelli (Italy)
Living in Vercelli (Italy)
He is a trade unionist. Haiku, mountains and photography are his main passions.
Since 2011 till 2019 he has been a member in the jury of the International Haiku Contest established by the Italian association “Cascina Macondo”.
His haiku eBooks are available on: https://archive.org/details/@oscar_luparia

Maya Lyubenova

(12 September 1956 – 30 December 2016)

Maya Lyubenova was born on 12 September 1956 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She graduated from the English Language School in Plovdiv and later studied English Philology at Veliko Tarnovo University.

Maya wrote poetry in both Bulgarian and English, and published free verse, visual poems, haiku and haiga in various journals, e-zines and anthologies:  Frogpond, The World Haiku Review, Shamrock Haiku Journal, Moonset, Haigaonline, Sketchbook - a Journal for Eastern and Western Short Forms,

cattails, A Hundred Gourds, Under the Basho, Simply Haiku, Lynx, La Ville/Градът, Aha The Anthology, 3Lights Gallery, Gean Tree Press, Naad Anunaad etc.

In 2009 Maya won the WHA Haiga Contest and was declared a Master Haiga Artist of the World Haiku Association. In 2010 she published a bilingual haiku collection called ‘Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо’, Ars Publishing House, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 2010. Although Maya left us with a rich collection of publications, photographs and haiga, her biggest legacy would have to be her mentoring and her participation in the translation of Jane Reichhold’s ‘Bare Bones School of Haiku’ into Bulgarian in 2012. This impressive amount of work proved to be an invaluable source of information for many Bulgarian poets - both beginners and more advanced on their haiku journey.

On 30 December 2016 our dear friend Maya left this world after a long and hard battle with the big C. A beloved mother and sister, a talented poet, translator and photographer, she will be sorely missed not only among her friends in the Bulgarian haiku community but worldwide!

Publications and other honours:

• Contest winner of WHA Haiga Contest: Master Haiga Artist of the World Haiku Association (2009);
• Second National Haiku Contest in Bulgaria - First Prize (2009);
• ‘Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо’, Ars Publishing House, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 2010;
• 17th Kusamakura International Haiku Contest - Third Prize (2012).

Photo exhibitions:

• Minimalism - 2011
• Image & Sound  - 2012

Selected haiku:

a tern’s shadow
darts across the beach
herring clouds

(Frogpond31:2, Spring/Summer 2008)

humpty dumpty
in a puddle
I stomp the moon

(Sketchbook 3-2, February, 2008)

wishing well –
the words I whisper
back in my face

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

table for two
a scorched leaf falls
in the salad

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

stabbed
on an icicle
the hanging moon

(Flecks of Blue /Парченца синьо, 2010)

the sparkles
in a stallion’s mane . . .
chestnut moon

(Simply Haiku – Spring 2011)

spring thunder –
the newspaper shakes
in my hands

(First Prize - The Second Bulgarian Haiku Contest – 2009; „Más-más csönd / Различна тишина“, Budapest, 2012)

a stallion
galloping through my dream
winter wind

(Lynx 28:1, February 2013)

children's feet...
I hope they never put on
army boots

(cattails, September 2016)

broken wall...
the barn and a cherry-tree
lean on each other

(Notes from the Gean, Issue 1, 2009; Naad Anunaad,2016)

Haiga:

• http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova/haiga
• https://plus.google.com/+MayaLyubenova
• http://haikuandhaiga.blogspot.co.uk/
• http://en.calameo.com/read/001196667515c6aca6759
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d1%85%d0%b0%d0%b9%d0%b3%d0%b0/%d0%bc%d0%b0%d1%8f-%d0%bb%d1%8e%d0%b1%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b2%d0%b0-maya-lyubenova/

Sources:

• http://mayalyubenova.wixsite.com/maya-lyubenova
• http://maya-freestylepoemsandflashfiction.blogspot.co.uk/
• https://livinghaikuanthology.com/poet-portfolios/97-l-poets/maya-lyubenova.html
• http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/poet-details/?IDclient=263
• https://allpoetry.com/Maya_Lyubenova
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d1%83-2/%d1%80%d0%b0%d1%81%d0%b8%d0%ba%d0%b0-%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%ba%d1%83/
• http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook3-4Apr08/Sketchbook_3-4_April_2008_Maya_Lyubenova_Experimental_Haiku.htm
• http://www.public-republic.net/artist-of-the-week%E2%80%93-maya-lyubenova/
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%82%D0%B8/bulgarian-haiku-after-2005/
• https://vidahaiku.wordpress.com/%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d0%bc%d0%b0%d1%8f-%d1%81-%d0%bc%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%be-%d0%be%d0%b1%d0%b8%d1%87/

Maya Lyubenova

Born 1956 in Bulgaria
Living in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
A title-holder of the World Haiga Association Master Haiga Artist.

David Oates

Born 1956, New York City, New York, USA
Currently Athens, Georgia, USA

David Oates is the host and producer of Wordland radio show on WUGA and https://www.wuga.org. His books are Night of the Potato (fiction and poetry), Shifting with My Sandwich Hand, Drunken Robins, and The Deer's Bandanna (the last three, haiku). He teaches haikai forms, especially haiku and senryu.

Neena Singh

Born 1956 at Lucknow, (Uttar Pradesh) India
Living at Chandigarh, India

Neena is a banker turned poet. Her poetry and haiku are regularly featured in online journals and international magazines. She is the author of Whispers of the Soul and One Breath Poetry. Neena runs a non-profit for the education and health of underprivileged children in Chandigarh, India.

Blog: Whispers of the Soul

Alan Summers

Djurdja Vukelić-Rožić

Born (1956) born/lives in Croatia.
The principal editor of IRIS International webzine. (ISSN 1849-8639)). She publishes short stories, poetry and haiku in Croatian, Kajkavian and English. She edited and translated a number of collections and anthologies including An Unmown Sky (2011) and An Unmown Sky 2 (2018).
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rodney Williams

Born 1956 in Australia
Living in Trafalgar, within the Gippsland region of Victoria, in south-eastern Australia

Rodney Williams has been Secretary of the Australian Haiku Society since mid-2014. His poems in Japanese short-forms and longer genres have been published in various journals/ collections over the last decade, at home and overseas. In 2013, Ginninderra Press (Port Adelaide) released his book A bird-loving man: haiku and tanka.  The first fifteen haiku included here were also included in his book.

Contact the poet