Cor Van den Heuvel (March 6, 1931 – September 12, 2024) was an American
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 ...
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
,
editor and
archivist.
Biography
Van den Heuvel was born in
Biddeford, Maine, and grew up in
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 ...
and
New Hampshire
New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
. He spent most of his life in New York City living in the East Village in Manhattan. He lived out his final decade on Long Island near his niece and writing haiku.
He first discovered haiku in 1958 in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
where he heard
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate ...
mention it at a poetry reading. He returned to the East Coast the following year and continued composing haiku. He became the house poet of a
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
coffee house, reading haiku and other poetry to jazz musical accompaniment. In 1971 he joined the
Haiku Society of America and became its president in 1978.
Heuvel died on September 12, 2024, at the age of 93.
Work
Van den Heuvel has published several books of his own haiku, including one on
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
. He is the editor of the three editions of ''The Haiku Anthology''; the original Haiku Anthology published in 1974 by Doubleday, the second edition published in 1986 by Simon & Schuster, and the third edition published in 1999 by Norton.
Honors
The Haiku Society of America has given Van den Heuvel three Merit Book Awards for his haiku. He was the honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the
California State Library
The California State Library is the state library of the State of California, founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. The Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. Today, it is the central ...
at Sacramento for 1999-2000. He worked at ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine in the layout department until he retired in 1988. He was the United States representative to the 1990 International Haiku Symposium in Matsuyama. At the World Haiku Festival held in London and Oxford in 2000, he received a World Haiku Achievement Award. In 2002, he was awarded The
Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards in
Matsuyama
270px, Matsuyama City Hall
270px, Ehime Prefectural Capital Building
is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku, in Japan and is also Shikoku's largest city. , the city had an estimated population of 505,948 in 243,541 h ...
, for his writing and editing of haiku books.
He has been described in ''The Alsop Review'' as "an intelligent and unflagging spokesperson for haiku".
Bibliography
*''the window washer's pail'' (author, as corneliszavandelheuvel), chantpress, 1963, edition of 127
*''The Haiku Anthology'' (editor), 1st edition, Anchor Books, 1974,
*''The Haiku Anthology'' (editor), 2nd edition, Simon and Schuster, 1986,
*''The Haiku Anthology'' (editor), 3rd edition, Norton, 1999,
*''Past Time: Baseball Haiku'' (editor, with
Jim Kacian), Red Moon Press, 1999,
*''Play Ball : Baseball Haiku'' (author), Red Moon Press, 1999,
*''Baseball Haiku'' (editor, with Nanae Tamura), Norton, 2007,
*''A Boy's Seasons:
Haibun Memoirs'' (author), Single Island Press, 2010,
*''Splashes'' (author), House of Haiku, 2023,
See also
*
Jim Kacian
References
Haiku International Association page on Cor van den Heuvel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van den Heuvel, Cor
American male poets
English-language haiku poets
1931 births
People from Biddeford, Maine
Poets from Maine
2024 deaths