Bruce Ross is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

American poet, author, philosopher, humanities educator and past president of the

Haiku Society of America The Haiku Society of America is a non-profit organization composed of haiku poets, editors, critics, publishers and enthusiasts that promotes the composition and appreciation of haiku in English. Founded in 1968, it is the largest society dedicate ...

. He was born in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Ross has taught Japanese poetry (in translation) and painting forms for many years at a number of institutions, including

Empire State College Empire State University (SUNY Empire) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State University is a multi-site institution offering associate degre ...

Burlington College Burlington College was a private college in Burlington, Vermont. It offered associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees, as well as several professional certificates. Although regionally accredited by the New England Association of Schools and ...

, the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

, the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

, and the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

. He has lectured on

haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...

in the

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, Canada,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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, and

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. His anthologies and instructional books are in numerous libraries.WorldCat
/ref> Ross's original English language haiku,

senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 (or , often translated as syllables, but see the article on for distinctions). tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and a ...

haibun is a prosimetric literary form originating in Japan, combining prose and haiku. The range of ''haibun'' is broad and frequently includes autobiography, diary, essay, prose poem, short story and travel journal. History The term "''haibun''" was ...

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the influential poetry anthology (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to disti ...

haiga is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of ''haikai''. ''Haiga'' are typically painted by haiku poets (''haijin''), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, ''haiga'' was based on simp ...

, and collaborative

renku , or , is a Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry. It is a development of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ''ushin'' renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse. At renku gatherings participating poets take turns prov ...

have appeared in international haiku journals, as have his reviews and articles. He is known for defining haiku as an "absolute metaphor" and as a "haiku moment." His ''spring clouds haiku'' won both a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award (2013) as well as the World Haiku Club R.H. Blyth Award (2013). Ross has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in humanities, including religion, critical theory, philosophy, poetics, world literature, mythology, and related subjects. Ross has lectured and published in phenomenology, most recently ''Traveling to Other Worlds, Lectures on Transpersonal Expression in Literature and the Arts'' (2012), and for many years published his essays on philosophy and aesthetics in ''Analecta Husserliana.'' He has also taught related graduate independent study in the humanities. Ross is the owner of Tancho Press, specializing in haiku related books. He lives with his wife Astrid in Hampden,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

Bibliography

Poetry

*''Thousands of Wet Stones.'' M.A.F. Portlandville New York (1988) *''The Trees.'' The Plowman Whitby Ontario (1991) *''among floating duckweed.'' HMS Press London Ontario (1994) *''SILENCE: COLLECTED HAIKU.'' HMS Press London Ontario (1997) *''summer drizzles... haiku and haibun.'' HMS Press London Ontario (2005) *''endless small waves.'' HMS Press London Ontario (2008) *''spring clouds haiku.'' Tancho Press Bangor Maine (2012)

Non-fiction

*''The Inheritance of Animal Symbols in Modern Literature and World Culture.'' Peter Lang (1988) *''If Not Higher, Lectures on the Poetics of Spiritual Presence and Absence.'' Peter Lang (1999) *''How to Haiku, A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms.'' Tuttle (2002) *''Venturing upon Dizzy Heights, Lectures and Essays on Philosophy, Literature, and the Arts.'' Peter Lang (2008) *''Traveling to Other Worlds, Lectures on Transpersonal Expression in Literature and the Arts.'' Peter Lang (2012)

Anthologies edited

*''Haiku Moment, An Anthology of Contemporary North American Haiku'' (1993) *''Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun'' (1998) *''scent of pine: A Maine Haiku Anthology'' (2011) *''A VAST SKY, An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku'' (2015) (co-editors: Koko Kato, Dietmar Tauchner, Patricia Prime)

References

External links

* Bruce Ross, The Essence of Haiku http://www.modernhaiku.org/essays/RossEssenceHaiku.html *Bruce Ross,Koko Kato, Dietmar Tauchner, Patricia Prime, A VAST SKY; reviewed in Frogpond, 2016 http://www.hsa-haiku.org/frogpond/2016-issue39-1/Ross-ReviewedByGeorge-Fp39-1.pdf
"An Interview with Bruce Ross" by Robert D. Wilson
Living people 20th-century Canadian poets Canadian male poets Writers from Hamilton, Ontario Poets from Ontario Canadian educators Poetry instructors People from Hampden, Maine English-language haiku poets Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Canadian male writers {{Canada-poet-stub