Penny Harter was born in New York City and lived in New Jersey until 1991 when she moved with her husband, William J. Higginson, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is a graduate of Douglass College of Rutgers University. She began publishing longer poetry in the 1960s and encountered haiku in the early 1970s. Over the years, she has published fifteen books of poems, including four of haiku. In addition to her haiku collections, of special interest to those interested in the genre is her book Stages and Views, a collection of meditative poems based on the woodblock prints of Hiroshige and Hokusai, which contains haiku-influenced longer poems and haiku. A sixteenth collection of poems, Buried in the Sky, will be published early this fall by La Alameda Press. Her work appears in some eighty anthologies. Harter's recent poems focus on the human relationship with the natural world, and she will be named the winner of the first William O. Douglas American Nature Writing Award (best of issue) in American Nature Writing 2002, edited by John Murray and published by Fulcrum Publishing. In addition, her autobiographical essay appears in Volume 28 of Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, and is reprinted in the more accessible Contemporary Authors, Volume 172. She has also published essays on teaching writing to secondary school students in books from Teachers & Writers Collaborative, ranging from one on teaching William Carlos Williams's Paterson to eleventh grade students, to one on teaching writing about animals to seventh graders. Harter gives readings and workshops widely in North America. Currently she teaches in the English department at Santa Fe Preparatory School. Harter has received numerous fellowships and awards for her writing from such organizations as the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Poetry Society of America. She has also won prizes and honorable mentions in the Haiku Society of America's Harold G. Henderson contest and the Haiku North America 1999 contest, and was First Runner-Up in the Valentine Awards from The Heron's Nest. Recent books include: Lizard Light: Poems From the Earth, Sherman Asher Publishing, 1998; Turtle Blessing, La Alameda Press, 1996; Grandmothers's Milk, Singular Speech Press, 1995; and Stages and Views, Katydid Books, 1994. Recent anthology contributions include: John Murray, ed. American Nature Writing 2001, Oregon State University Press (poems); Wendy Maltz, ed. Intimate Kisses: The Poetry of Sexual Pleasure, New World Library, 2001 (poems); John Murray, ed. American Nature Writing 2000, Oregon State University Press (poems); Paul Janeczko, ed. Stone Bench in the Empty Park, Orchard Books, 2000 (haiku); George Swede and Randy Brooks, eds. Global Haiku, Mosaic Press, 2000; June Cotner, ed. Animal Blessings, Harper San Francisco, 2000 (poems); Christian McEwen and Mark Statman, eds. The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 2000 (essay on teaching writing); Sara St. Antoine, ed. Stories From Where We Live: The North Atlantic Coast, Milkweed Editions, 2000 (haiku sequence); X. J. and Dorothy M. Kennedy, eds. Knock at a Star, Little, Brown & Co., 1999 (haiku); Cor van den Heuvel, ed. The Haiku Anthology: Haiku and Senryu in English, Norton, 1999; Bruce Ross, ed. Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun, Tuttle, 1998 (book excerpt); Gary Lenhart, ed. The Teachers & Writers Guide to William Carlos Williams, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1998 (essay on teaching writing); and John Murray, ed. American Nature Writing 1998, Sierra Club Books (poems). haiku (in editors' picks I-2): "down from the mountain" - haijinx volume I, issue 2
haiku: "down from the mountain" - previously unpublished
biography
contests & awards
chapbooks, books, collections, & anthologies
haiku: "before her wedding" - previously unpublished
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