DailyHaiku - A Daily Shot Of Zen

Laurie MacFayden has lived in Edmonton, Canada since 1984. When she's not pushing words around the page she's often throwing paint at a canvas or arguing with her inner 11 year-old. She is a frequent reader on the world famous Raving Poets' open-mike stage. In addition to wordsmithing, she is obsessed with string theory and time travel.

Aaron Marko has been disturbing the peace since he was born. Presently, he resides in Vancouver, Canada where he is plotting to overthrow the Canadian government. He can be summed up thus: "In a word, Aaron J. Marko is fucking crazy. The SOB tried stabbing me to death with a mechanical pencil once. I'll never turn my back on that bastard again." -Craig Sampress

Ray Rasmussen became interested in haiku after photographing the Kurimoto japanese Garden. He searched for Asian poetry to post with the images on a web site, found haiku and settled into writing in the haibun style (prose plus haiku). He is haibun editor of the World Haiku Review and Managing Editor of Contemporary Haibun Online. Ray teaches haiku & haibun composition. Ray has had his haiku published in Heron's Nest, Simply Haiku, Tiny Words, Contemporary Haibun Online, and Haiku Harvest. He spends most of his time writing, doing photography, and hiking Canada's mountain parks and Utah's Canyonlands. In a former life, he dreamt he was a university professor. His website is: www.raysweb.net. His email is ray@raysweb.net.

Kelly Shepherd's poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. His chapbook Circumambulations was published by Beyond Borders Publishing in 2002. A Canadian ex-pat, he is a contributing writer and monthly columnist for the Gwangju News, in South Korea, where he works as an English teacher. When not at work, Kelly is probably either reading, hiking, or looking at birds through green binoculars.

Mingus Tourette drives a pink ambulance. He is the author of nunt, and The Unclean. He is a founding father of The Roar, and the editor of the gonzo Daily Mingus. He started the Write The Nation Tour in 2004, and has relentlessly performed and promoted poetry from Vancouver to New York. Tourette lives in Edmonton. He is no longer married and has no children, to the best of his knowledge.

Thomas Trofimuk's first novel, The 52nd Poem, was published by Great Plains Publications in the spring of 2002. The book went on to win a few awards including the 2003 Alberta Novel of the Year and the City of Edmonton Book Prize. A second novel, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, is set to be published in April 2006, from Cormorant Books. Thomas is a founding father of the Raving Poets movement, and festival director of The Roar, a spoken word festival set to smash into the Edmonton literary scene September 21, 22 and 23, 2006. He’s a regular reviewer for the Edmonton Journal book page, and his poems and short stories have been published in literary magazines and journals across Canada, and broadcast on CBC radio.

Nicole Pakan is an active member of the Edmonton literary community. She is the co-editor of DailyHaiku, associate art editor for DailyHaiga, and has served on the board of directors of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Nicole's first single-author chapbook Driftworks was released in 2012 from Leaf Press. Her work has also recently appeared in: Carousel, CV2, filling Station, The Prairie Journal, and Other Voices. She was the winner of the 2009 Edmonton CBC Poetry Faceoff, placing third nationally. Nicole lives with her literary co-conspirator Patrick M. Pilarski, a dozen fish and far too many plants. She may be contacted online at DailyHaiku; you can find more information on Nicole's recent work at: www.nicolepakan.ca.

Patrick M. Pilarski is the co-editor of DailyHaiku and associate poetry editor for DailyHaiga. His collection of haiku, tanka, haibun, and related forms, Huge Blue, was released in 2009 by Leaf Press, and he is the author of two chapbooks. Patrick's writing has appeared in journals and anthologies across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Recent credits include The Fiddlehead, Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest, Frogpond, contemporary haibun, and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka. He has served as Vice President for the League of Canadian Poets, and is a professor at the University of Alberta. Patrick may be contacted at DailyHaiku; more information on Patrick's work can be found online at www.pilarski.ca.

Editor photos by r. edwards photography.

Finley J. McDoggerson is the newest member of DailyHaiku's editorial team. When not eating socks and running in the ravine, he enjoys games of chase-me, playing with his ball, and chewing modern literature.

Michael Gravel, Past-Editor and Founder, DailyHaiku, is a writer based in Edmonton, Alberta. He's a founder and the frontman of Edmonton’s Raving Poets, and co-founder of The Roar Spoken Word Festival. He is a freelance writer, web designer, and professional presenter. In December 2007, his life was nearly ended by a pulmonary embolism. In response he authored the chapbook, The Fast Places (Red Nettle, 2008). He lives in a wee house with his wife, stepdaughter, and two incorrigible hounds. He lives to write, code, and spend time with his family.