author bio - Jan Bostok

In the late 1960s, early ‘70s Janice Bostok was writing to an American pen friend. The friend sent Janice the little Four Seasons book of haiku translated by Peter Beilensen and published by the Peter Pauper Press.

Janice instinctively knew that this artform was what she could and needed to write. The first haiku that she wrote was published! From 1971 she became published regularly in the United States, and she was also included in Cor van den Heuvel’s second edition of The Haiku Anthology, published in 1986. One small collection of haiku, Walking Into The Sun, published in the US won a Haiku Society of America book award in 1974.

Janice began to edit and published the haiku magazine, TWEED, which ran from 1972 - 1979. There were not enough Australian writers interested in haiku to warrant a magazine devoted to the form at that time.

In the 1980s Janice chose not to seek publication, as she studied for, and received, a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Queensland, in Brisbane (1986). In the 1990s she resumed being published.

In 1994 Janice joined the Paper Wasp Haiku Group, which meet in Brisbane each month. They began publishing the haiku journal, Paper Wasp, which she still co-edits. She also spent a number of years as the Haiku Adviser to HOBO. Janice is currently the haiku judge for Yellow Moon, and she is the Australian Editor for the Red Moon Anthology.

In 1997, Ernest Berry, together with the Poetry Society of New Zealand, organised Haiku Sounds, in Picton. It was held over one weekend and about twenty five haiku poets from all over New Zealand attended. They held workshops, discussions and social events. The next year Janice was invited back to New Zealand as Guest Poet at the Tauranga Into The Light Poetry Festival. Later she was the inaugural tutor for the haiku weekend workshop held by the Queen Charlotte College’s Spring School, in Picton. In New Zealand Janice is affectionately known as the ‘Haiku Missionary’!

Because of Janice's association with New Zealand, and Catherine Mair, Janice became involved in the Katikati Haiku Pathway. The local council have built a special park. Huge boulders have been placed in the park, on which haiku poems are carved! Two of the haiku on boulders are Janice's. Being involved in this project is the highlight of her haiku career.

So far in 2002, Janice is editing for an on-line haiku section of a magazine, for a local writers group anthology, and for a poetry collective's chapbooks. She is actively working with other artists to mix haiku and their arts and she is creating her own haiga. She still judges for Yellow Moon and Paper Wasp. She also teaches a poetry class regularly and had led workshops and given interviews on haiku.

Janice believes haiku is a way of life.

haijinx II:1 (spring 2002)

article: "To Laugh Or To Cry" - previously unpublished
haiku: "traffic delay" - Lynx
haiku: "a dog marks" - Paper Wasp
haiku: "fire siren" - Nil
haiku (in haiga): "a fox in daylight" - Lynx
haiku: "fast food" - Paper Wasp
haiku: "makeshift bridge moves" - A Splash of Sunlight
haiku: "stepping stone" - Modern Haiku
haiku: "feng shui!" - A Splash of Sunlight
haiku: "first night with us" - Brussels Sprout
haiku: "incense" - A Splash of Sunlight
haiku: "piano practice" - A Splash of Sunlight
haiku: "duck" - Nil
haiku: "missed it" - A Splash of Sunlight
haiku: "sudden shower" - Modern Haiku
haiku (in haiga): "evening heat" - Haiku Headlines

biography

haijinx II:1 (spring 2002)

haijinx I:1 (spring 2001)