Lee Gurga (born July 28, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American haiku poet. In 1997, he served as president of the Haiku Society of America. He was the editor of '' Modern Haiku'' magazine from 2002 to 2006, and is the current editor of the Modern Haiku Press. Gurga lives in Lincoln, Illinois, where he works as a

dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the mouth, oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofaci ...

. Also involved in the translation of Japanese haiku into English, Gurga cites

Matsuo Bashō born then was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative '' haikai no renga'' form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest ma ...

, a Japanese poet from the Edo period, as one of his main appreciations. One of his most known haiku is about graduation day for students and is presented in his book ''Haiku: A Poet's Guide''.

Background

Born in Chicago, Gurga attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He first became interested in haiku during his high school years after reading a haiku translation book by Reginald Horace Blyth. He started his own haiku writing after that, focusing on

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

imagery and scenery for his topics.

Bibliography

* ''The Measure of Emptiness'' (Press Here, 1991) * ''In and Out of Fog'' (Press Here, 1997) * ''Fresh Scent'' (Brooks Books, 1998) * ''Haiku: A Poet's Guide'' (Modern Haiku Press, 2003) * ''Autumn Mosquito'' (2005)

Background

Bibliography

References

Further reading