Elizabeth Searle Lamb (January 22, 1917 – February 16, 2015) was an American poet. She is known for writing

English-language haiku A haiku in English is an English-language poem written in the Japanese poetry style known as haiku, which correlates the two languages. The degree to which haiku in English resemble classic Japanese haiku varies, but many of these poems draw on s ...

Raymond Roseliep Raymond Roseliep (August 11, 1917 – December 6, 1983) was a poet and contemporary master of the English haiku and a Catholic priest. He has been described as "the John Donne of Western haiku." Early life Born on August 11, 1917, in Farl ...

called her the "First Lady of American haiku". Her work has been translated into other languages.

Biography

She was born in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...

. She attended the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

and studied music and, in particular, she played the harp. She married F. Bruce Lamb in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

in 1941. They lived in several places in South America due to her husband's job as a forester. They moved to New York in 1961. She served as president of the

Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicate ...

in 1971. She died in 2015 in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

Honors and awards

She was the honorary curator for the American Haiku Archives in the California State Library in Sacramento from 1996 to 1998.

Bibliography

* ''The pelican tree, and other Panama adventures'', 1953 * ''Today and every day'', 1970 * ''39 Blossoms'', 1982 * ''Across the windharp: collected and new haiku'', 1999

References

1917 births 2015 deaths English-language haiku poets American women poets University of Kansas alumni 21st-century American women writers {{US-poet-1910s-stub