Donating to the American Haiku Archives

 

How to Donate to the American Haiku Archives

The American Haiku Archives would not exist without the generous donation of books, papers, and other materials from interested individuals and groups. If you are considering a donation of your haiku materials, or materials from an estate for which you are a family member, friend, or an executor, the following guidance covers how to make a donation and the forms to include, and explains potential tax benefits.

Don’t throw away any haiku-related materials

When the American Haiku Archives began in 1996, Dr. Kevin Starr, the state librarian at the California State Library, said, “if in doubt, donate it —let history decide its value.” This remains the approach the American Haiku Archives promotes in preserving materials relating to the art and lives of haiku poets, scholars, and translators who might wish to donate materials to the archives. It is better to donate materials rather than to toss something that might be of value. Books are the most prominent items to donate (if we do not already have them), but private correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, journals, photographs, recordings, press clippings, and artwork (all relating to haiku) are also welcome. Some degree of biographical material and material not directly related to haiku or other poetry is also welcome if it helps to give a picture of the life of a particular haiku poet.

If the cost of shipping materials is a hindrance, please contact anyone on the AHA advisory board to see if financial assistance might be available. While we may not be able to provide financial assistance for shipping, we would rather know about your situation than to lose an historically valuable donation. The American Haiku Archives is not able to purchase collections, libraries, or papers, but may be able to raise funds needed to ship materials that would otherwise be lost or destroyed.

If you are uncertain as to the historical value of the materials under your care, or might need financial assistance to cover the shipping of materials to the archives, please contact the advisory board for guidance.

 


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I'm not usually a fan of most things Amerikan, but the American Haiku Archives does seem like one worthwhile institution in that benighted country. For several years I've made donations to these archives in the dead of winter. January is a good time to sort through my hundreds, perhaps thousands, of haiku books, chapbooks, anthologies, correspondence and ephemera for my annual donations. Below is the current list of my own work. I've also donated material by other haijin, so you might want to check the listings yourself, and then consider donating. 

1	Select Row	Title: Eel Pie Island Dharma : a hippie memoir/haibun /	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Brighton, Ontario : Hidden Brook Press, [2012]	Description: 119 pages ;  23 cm
		Cover/Photo:
2	Select Row	Title: Crossing lines : poets who came to Canada in the Vietnam War era /	Author: Briesmaster, Allan, editor.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Hamilton, ON : Seraphim Editions, 2008.	Description: 256 pages ;  23 cm
		Cover/Photo:
3	Select Row	Title: ZenRiver poems & haibun /	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: [Brighton, Ontario] : Hidden Brook Press, [2008]	Description: xiii, 58 pages ;  21 cm
		Cover/Photo:
4	Select Row	Title: Haiku Canada : 15th anniversary holograph anthology /	Author: Fraticelli, Marco, 1945-	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: [Aylmer, Quebec? : Haiku Canada, 1996]	Description: 28 sheets in box :  ill. ;  11 x 18 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
5	Select Row	Title: Silenced spring : 1991 Haiku Canada member’s anthology /	Author: Burch, Brian.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Aylmer, Quebec? : Haiku Canada, c1991.	Description: 35 p. ;  11 x 13 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
6	Select Row	Title: Cricket formations.	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: 1990.	Description: 18 p. ;  22 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
7	Select Row	Title: Eel pie dharma : a novella/haibun /	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Toronto : Unfinished Monument Press, 1990.	Description: 58 leaves ;  28 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
8	Select Row	Title: Special delivery : Haiku Canada 1987-88 members’ anthology /	Author: Avis, Nick, 1957-	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Aylmer, Quebec : Haiku Canada, c1988.	Description: 49 p. :  ill. ;  11 x 14 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
9	Select Row	Title: Voices /	Author: McKay, Anne, 1932-	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Aylmer, Quebec : Haiku Canada, c1988.	Description: 47 p. ;  11 x 17 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
10	Select Row	Title: Haiku Canada : 10th anniversary holograph anthology /	Author: Fraticelli, Marco, 1945-	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: [Aylmer, Quebec? : Haiku Canada, 1987]	Description: 45 sheets in box :  ill. ;  14 x 21 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
11	Select Row	Title: Foot through the ceiling : poems & haiku /	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Toronto : Aya Press, c1986.	Description: 77 p. ;  23 cm.
		Cover/Photo:
12	Select Row	Title: Sleeping in ruins : haiku and senryu, 1968-1980 /	Author: Faiers, Chris.	Locations: Show Locations
		Imprint: Toronto : Unfinished Monument Press, 1981.	Description: 12 p. ;  23 cm.
		Cover/Photo:

Hi Allan,

Thanks for the kind response  :  )  Yep,  "Crossing Lines" is in the AHA archives, as well as a lot of other items I've donated over the years. I sent the link to the post to some Canuck haijin, and I'm pleased to learn Haiku Canada's archives may soon be headed for a permanent home in a professional B.C. library. For years they were in someone's basement or similarly inappropriate and inaccessible storage.

I'm fine, but perhaps a bit bored and missing big city life after almost 3 decades out here on the edge of The Shield. I trust you, Holly and Clara are doing well also? As a former hippie and rebellious survivor of the 1960s, I never planned to live to age 70, which somehow crept up on me last summer! Despite a bohemian lifestyle, I'm still fit and hardy, at least so far as I'm aware. I just got back from a 1 1/2 hour hike on a very remote part of the trans-Canada trail a few mins ago. It's around minus 11 but very bright and sunny, and the only tracks on the trail where I hiked were of other wild beings, some a bit scary  :  ) Even the 4 wheelers and snowmobilers haven't been out there yet.  

Good luck with decluttering your library. One good thing about doing this is all the memories which are evoked. Also I feel freer with fewer literary ghosts left hovering around my house. When I make my next trek to TO I'll make sure to contact you - hopefully for a dinner in Little India or at 3 Seasons Hanoi!

peace & poetry power!
Chris