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Ban’ya Natsuishi
Poet (Japan)
Born in Japan in 1955. Studied at Tokyo University where he received a Masters of Arts in Comparative Literature and Culture. Prominent as an international promoter of haiku writing and translation. Natsuishi is the greatest haiku master after classical master Basho Matsuo. He published 14 haiku collections, including Earth Pilgrimage (1998), Flying Pope (2008) & Black Card (2012), 7 collected haiku critical studies, including Poetics of Haiku (1983) & Haiku Juomujin (2010, co-authored with Sayumi Kamakura), edited 10 volumes of multilingual haiku anthologies, the latest World Haiku 2013: No. 9 (2013). His haiku were translated into about 30 languages, including English, French, Italian, Lithuanian, Spanish, etc. He has authored and co-authored many overseas publications, beginning with A Future Waterfall (USA, 1999 & 2004), Flying Pope: 127 Haiku (India, 2008) & Concentric Circles (Serbia, 2009), Turquoise Milk: 500 Haiku from the Japanese (USA, 2011), Modern Japanese Haiku (India, 2012), etc. In 2002 he won the Hekigodo Kawahigashi Prize; in 2008 AZsacra International Poetry Award. Currently he works as Professor at Meiji University, and is the publisher of the international haiku quarterly Ginyu, also the co-founder & director of the World Haiku Association and Tokyo Poetry Festival Committee.