Haibun is a mix of prose and haiku (or tanka). Its focus is on the everyday experiences that add up to a life. The prose tends to be quasi-autobiographical. It includes memoirs, accounts of poignant experiences in any context, dreams and even fantasy. As distinguished from prose poetry, it includes one or more haiku genre poems (haiku or tanka prose). As distinguished from flash or short fiction – the work tends to feel as if the writer is describing his or her personal experiences and the characters and situations do not feel made up. As distinguished from classical or free verse poetry, haibun prose tends not to employ devices like free-verse type line breaks, rhyming, rhythm. However, haibun do fall into two groups, straight narrative storytelling and literary storytelling employing poetic devices. As with other genres, haibun writers tend to embellish experience, adding, exaggerating or dropping bits and pieces in order to make the writing succinct and to hold the interest of the reader. Examples of haibun can be found in the online journals A Hundred Gourds, Contemporary Haibun Online, Haibun Today. The haiku genre journal publication website contains a listing of journals that deal with all haiku genres. The haibun resources website contains links to articles, commentaries and reviews of haibun publications and interviews of haibun writers.
Haibun Bookshelf Publishing
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