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Honorary Curator LeRoy Gorman

LeRoy Gorman
Honorary Curator, 2012–2013

Appointment Announcement

Leroy GormanThe American Haiku Archives advisory board is pleased to announce the appointment of LeRoy Gorman as the 2012–2013 honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in Sacramento. This honor is in recognition of his devotion to and enthusiasm for haiku development and exploration in Canada, with exemplary influence upon all English-language haiku across North America and abroad through his publications and editing, and his decades-long support of the Haiku Canada organization. His poetry consistently shows admirable creativity, courage, and range, embracing both traditional and visual/minimalist approaches to haiku and related genres of poetry. We are pleased to bestow this honor from the American Haiku Archives, which seeks to preserve and promote haiku and related poetry throughout the North American continent.

The American Haiku Archives, which includes the Haiku Society of America archives, is the largest public collection of haiku materials outside Japan. Each year since the archives were established on July 12, 1996, the AHA advisory board, currently chaired together by Garry Gay and Randy Brooks, appoints a new honorary curator (an idea suggested by the former California state librarian, Dr. Kevin Starr). Past curators, in order starting from the first year, have been Elizabeth Searle Lamb, Jerry Kilbride, Cor van den Heuvel, Robert Spiess, Lorraine Ellis Harr, Leroy Kanterman, William J. Higginson, Makoto Ueda, Francine Porad, Hiroaki Sato, H. F. Noyes, George Swede, Stephen Addiss, Gary Snyder, and Jerry Ball.

The AHA advisory board is delighted to pay tribute to LeRoy Gorman as the sixteenth honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.

—Michael Dylan Welch

Biography

LeRoy Gorman lives in Napanee, Ontario. He was born in Smiths Falls, Ontario, in 1949 and raised on a farm near Merrickville. After graduating from Carleton and Queen’s universities, he embarked on a thirty-eight year teaching career, beginning with the Ontario Ministry of Correctional Services and ending with the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board. His poetry, much of it visual (mostly minimalist and haiku, or haiku-like), has appeared in print since 1976 in various presentations worldwide, and has garnered numerous awards. His visual poetry has also been displayed in exhibitions, internationally. In addition to writing, he edits Haiku Canada publications, including Haiku Canada Newsletter from 1996 to 2006, followed by Haiku Canada Review, beginning in 2007, as well as various annual anthologies broadsides. Since 1998, he has also published poetry leaflets and postcards under his pawEpress imprint. In addition to writing under his own name, he has published under at least fifty pseudonyms. He is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the Haiku Society of America, and is a life member of Haiku Canada.

Books by LeRoy Gorman

if I could trust the moon. London, Ontario: Killaly Press, 1977.

only shadflies have come. Oneonta, New York: Swamp Press, 1979.

whose smile the ripple warps. Toronto: Underwhich Editions, 1980.

wind in the keys. Battle Ground, Indiana: High/Coo Press, 1981.

heart’s garden. Montreal: Guernica Editions, 1983.

beautiful chance. London, Ontario: South Western Ontario Poetry, 1984.

bad news. Sterling, Virginia: Mockersatz Zrox, 1986.

where sky meets sky. Toronto: Nietzsche’s Brolly, 1987.

parallel journey/voyage parallele (with André Duhaime). Hull, Quebec: Editions Asticou, 1989.

dandelions& dreams. Goderich, Ontario: Moonstone Press, 1990.

glass bell. Montreal: King’s Road Press, 1991.

heavyn. Port Charlotte, Florida: The Runaway Spoon Press, 1992.

a haiku alphabet in celebration of spring. Aylmer, Quebec: Proof Press, 1994.

a haiku alphabet in celebration of summer. Aylmer, Quebec: Proof Press, 1995.

a haiku alphabet in celebration of fall. Aylmer, Quebec: Proof Press, 1996.

a haiku alphabet in celebration of winter. Aylmer, Quebec: Proof Press, 1997.

seasons on the run. Enfield, Connecticut: Tiny Poems Press, 1997.

prisoners. Charleston. Illinois: tel-let, 1999.

flurries. Fulton, Missouri: Timberline Press, 1999.

The Poems of Sherlock Holmes. Shelburne, Ontario: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2000.

nothing personal. Aylmer, Quebec: Proof Press, 2001.

fast enough to leave this world. Edmonton, Alberta: Inkling Press, 2011.

Selected Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

aces & eights
another Junebug
hits the glass

Modern Haiku 28: 2, Summer 1997

                                                                   no one for miles
                                                                   the billboard declares
                                                                   SIN IS EVERYWHERE

                                                                   Raw Nervz Haiku 7: 2, Summer 2001

 

  sp
 ring
  th
 awe
 her
 zip
purr

Modern Haiku 34:1, 2003

                                                                   hurricane near
                                                                   she gets her nails done
                                                                   the color of the sea

                                                                   South by Southeast 12:2, 2005

                          no
                         way
                       to see
                         the
                     mountain
(((((((((((((((((sombrero)))))))))))))))))

Modern Haiku 38:3, Autumn 2007

                                                                   old vinyl
                                                                   In My Life
                                                                   is the B side

                                                                   Frogpond 29:2, Spring/Summer 2006

in full view
of the homeless
The Museum of Civilization

Modern Haiku 41:2, Summer 2010

                                                                   sculpted in ice
                                                                   the politician changes state
                                                                   with the weather

                                                                   Raw Nervz Haiku 9:1, Spring 2003

at the end of the rainbowat

Frogpond 32:2, Spring/Summer 2009

                                                                   unsold at dusk
                                                                   morning-picked corn’s
                                                                   deeper yellow

                                                                   Haiku Spirit 19, March 2000

no way out
Death’s at the door
demanding candy

The Heron's Nest, March 2010

                                                                   a day to Christmas
                                                                   the endless blinking
                                                                   of brakes

                                                                   Frogpond 27:3, Autumn 2004

snowmelt on a familiar road
strangers' names return
to mailboxes

The Heron’s Nest, May 2000

                                                                   cometailover

                                                                   Scifaikuest, May 2011

Web Links

Profile at Millikin University
http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/writerprofiles/LeroyGorman.html

Reader Appreciation Essay
http://www.brooksbookshaiku.com/MillikinHaiku/writerprofiles/TuckerOnGorman.html

The Writers’ Union of Canada
http://www.writersunion.ca/member/leroy-gorman

Haiku at Haiku Presence
http://haiku-presence.50webs.com/haiku/gorman.html

 

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