The Best Haiku 2026 Anthology judges
Daniel Bourne — Translator, poet and haikuist, and founding editor of The Artful Dodge.
Daniel’s books of poetry include The Household Gods, Where No One Spoke the Language, and Talking Back to the Exterminator, his latest. His haiku have been published in Modern Haiku, with other poems in such journals as American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Guernica,Yale Review, and Salmagundi. He has lived in Poland several times, including in 1985-87, on a Fulbright for the translation of younger Polish poets. His book of translations of Polish poet Bronislaw Maj — Extinction of the Holy City — was published in 2024. Daniel is the founding editor of Artful Dodge, (1979-2025), and is now Translation Editor of its online, environmentally-focused successor, The Dodge.
“Haiku in English involve a calligraphy of the mind, each image like a brush stroke adding a new and surprising element to the mix. Human consciousness intertwined with nature — and always in flux, each line like a small step or long stride into the unknown path ahead.”
Despy Boutris — Writer and artist.
Despy is the author of the fiction chapbook Burials (Bull City Press, 2022) and also has work published in POETRY, Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, Colorado Review, American Poetry Review, AGNI, The Gettysburg Review, The Cincinnati Review and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles.
Steve FitzGerald — Writing coach, public school teacher, editor of Alphabet Box and founder of The Best Haiku anthologies.
“I’m no longer amazed at how intuitive and naturally talented people are. If they don’t believe they are, it’s been my experience that haiku helps reveal their gifts to them… perhaps for the first time. Then, their creativity may blossom!”