A poet, editor and anthologist, Kala Ramesh writes and teaches haiku, tanka, haibun and renku to children, undergrads and senior citizens. An external faculty member of the Symbiosis International University Pune since 2012, she teaches Japanese short forms of poetry to undergrads — a first in India!  A haiku & haibun mentor at The Katha National Writers Workshop (KNWW) since 2013 for schools children.

Passionate about bringing haiku into everyday spaces, Kala has initiated

haikuWALL - getting graffiti artists to paint haiku on city walls.

haikuTRAIL - a walk through a chosen area, keeping our five senses open.

haikuWORKSHOP - The Short and Long of Haiku & Haibun. A 7-hour workshop spread over two days.

haikuTALK- 'interactive conversations' on Japanese short forms of poetry and the magic of its haikai language.

haikuYOUTH - exposing children to haiku and encouraging them to get their poems published in excellent haiku journals worldwide.

haikuUTSAV – Kala has organised five utsavs so far to enjoy the beauty of haiku and allied genres in India and to get English-language Haiku (ELH) and regional poets under one umbrella.

haikuDHYANA - highlighting the silences that govern both these practices. Something that has never been explored before in India!

haikuSTAGE - the marrying of an art form like dance, drama, mime, music or painting with haiku, tanka and haibun — a stage performance.

Been appointed as a Visiting Faculty for Haiku and allied genres at the innovative Riverbend School India (near Chennai)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/chennai-india-riverbend-school-danish-kurani-education-creative-design-vivek-kiran-indira-reddy-a8261991.html
https://kurani.us/riverbend/

Kala’s readings at Lyrikline.org:
Haibun: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/blue-jacaranda-13990
Haibun: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/autumns-depth-13989
Haiku: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/haiku-13985
Tanka: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/tanka-1-13986
Tanka: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/tanka-2-13987
Tanka: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/tanka-3-13988

FSLE-India & Amrita Vishva Vidyapeetham, Kollam, Kerala jointly organize
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ECOLOGY AND CULTURE
Ecological and Cultural Cognizance: A Boulevard of Sustainable Amiability
December 15-17, 2018

Venue: Amrita Vishva Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, Kollam, Kerala.

Kala will be teaching haiku and haibun to the participants and students in a 3-hour workshop and will also be in the panel with Dr. Jyhene Kebsy, University of Sydney, Australia and Prof. Paul Outka, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The University of Kensas, USA – on Ecology and Culture.
Her love for haiku and her many initiatives culminated in the formation of ‘IN Haiku’ in 2013 — bringing Indian haiku poets under one umbrella to promote, enjoy, and sink deeper into the beauty and intricacies of haiku and allied Japanese short forms of poetry.
Kala created the ‘Rasika’ form, an eight-verse renku (collaborative linked verses) fashioned after Matsuo Basho’s non-thematic style. 

Interviews, Book Reviews, newspapers and online coverage:

At Cornell Library’s Mann Daily Haiku Kala Ramesh

At Cornell Library’s Mann Daily Haiku Kala Ramesh haikuYOUTH

At Cornell Library’s Mann Daily Haiku Kala Ramesh students

Feature : Haiku in India - A Hundred Gourds

A season for haiku - Pune Mirror

'beyond the horizon beyond' by Kala Ramesh | Official Book Trailer ...

Review of Kala Ramesh, Beyond the Horizon Beyond - Haibun Today

Bob Lucky's review of the book 'beyond the horizon beyond'.

Scott Mason – a renowned and most respected haiku poet reviews ‘beyond the horizon beyond’ in Frogpond (Haiku Society of America)

Michael Rehling founder and editor at ‘Failed Haiku’ in Goodreads

The Hindu Hyderabad edition carried this review of ‘haikuDHYANA’ on 12 June 2018

This was published in Indian Express Chennai after the 1^st session of haikuDHYANA 

This interview was published in DNA Mumbai edition on Monday 26 February, 2018

The Indian Express, Chennai 4 January 2018, by Abinaya Kalyanasundaram

Dina Thandi English (DTNEXT) on 9^th January 2018 by Nishadh Mohammad

The Hindu, Chennai 10 January 2018 by Preeti Zachariah

THE WEEK – A Weekend Special - on 19 January 2018 by Sujitha Jothi

The Times of India - Pune Mirror on 10 December 2017 by Lalitha Suhasini

A post on wabi-sabi in the Home and Garden NJ that includes some of Kala’s quotes

First Prize Winner at the Golden Triangle Haiku Contest 2016, USA

Haiku Chronicles Podcasts presents Kala Ramesh’s film on HaikuWALL India

An interview on Tanka Online from January to July 2010 

Featured in Mann Library Haiku Daily in April, 2011

Featured Haiku Poet: Simply Haiku (November 2009)

Jane Reichhold interviews Kala Ramesh

Living Haiku Anthology

Awards:

• In February 2016, Kala’s haiku won first place ($ 500 as gift) out of more than 900 haiku submissions at the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, who convened a panel of experts to judge their Golden Haiku public art contest. Two more of Kala’s poems were selected for the Runners Up category. All 3 haiku were displayed in flower beds around the streets of Washington DC during the month of March 2016.

• Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku 2016, won the first prize for the Best Anthology 2017 at the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards.

• the unseen arc, Kala’s tanka collection awarded the Snapshot Press eChapbook Award, 2012 (UK), published in June 2017.

• Readers' Choice Poem of the Year Award and First runner-up, The Heron's Nest Readers' Choice Poet of the Year Award - The Heron's Nest - Volume VIII, 2006. USA

• Winner of the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Contest, UK – 2009 with 3 of her haiku chosen as winners and 4th as a runner-up.

• First Prize at the Akita International Haiku Award, Japan. September 2013.
• Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2012, Japan. An (Cottage) Prize for the haibun: The Blue Jacaranda

• Haiku, along with My Haiku Moments: An Activity Book for Young Haiku Lovers, published by Katha, was awarded the Honourable Mention for Best Book for Children in The Haiku Society of America - Merit Book Awards for 2011.

• TATA LitLive Festival, Mumbai, October 2014– 3^rd prize in the Haiku Contest.

• ‘beyond the horizon beyond’ – a book of 283 haiku and 41 haibun culled from 11 years of Kala’s published works. This book has been launched in Haiku North America Conference (Sep 2017) at Santa Fe, Japan Foundation Delhi (Dec 2017), Prakriti Foundation Chennai (January 2018), Poets of Pondicherry at Kalarigram Auroville (Jan 2018), Gyaan Adab Pune (Jan 2017), Lamakaan and Our Sacred Spaces Hyderabad (Feb 2018). Title Waves Bandra – leading bookstore in Mumbai on 17^th March 2018. Shut Up and Read’s two-day Lit Fest on 24 & 25 March.

Editorial:

Kala Ramesh was invited to co-edit a woman’s haiku anthology – Wishbone Moon, Jacar Press 2018 (USA); Editor of haiku, haibun, tanka and tanka prose at Women Empowerment India’s WE: Our Space Anthology, September 2018 (India); Chief editor of Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku – which went on to win the1st prize Best Anthology at the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards 2017. Kala is Editor of Modern Haiku at Under the Basho (USA); Editor of Youth Corner, Cattails (USA); Ex-poetry Editor, Katha.org (Delhi); Editor of Haiku and Short Verses, Muse India (Hyderabad); Deputy Editor-in-Chief at World Haiku Review (UK) and serves on the editorial team of Living Haiku Anthology and Living Senryu Anthology (USA); Was on the editorial board—Take Five: The Best Contemporary Tanka 2009, 2010 and 2011; Ex-haibun Editor at Simply Haiku 2010. Kala has judged international and national haiku and tanka contests.

Kala Ramesh’s work comprising of haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka, haibun, tanka prose and renku, are published in reputed journals and anthologies, both online and print editions in Japan, Europe, United Kingdom, Australia, United States of America and India.

Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, edited by Kala Ramesh, et all, won the 1st prize at the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards: http://www.hsa-haiku.org/meritbookawards/merit-book_archive.htm

Kala has been instrumental in bringing Indian school kids and college youth into haiku and allied Japanese short forms of poetry. It can be viewed at:

https://www.haikuchronicles.com/podcasts/e31-haikuwall-india

Kala is also the originator of the shortest 8 verse renku, ‘Rasika’, which can be viewed at: http://ahundredgourds.com/ahg42/renku02.html

Kala’s Snapshot Press eChapbook winner ‘the unseen arc’ is up!

The link: http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/ebooks/the_unseen_arc.pdf

• Kala has had the rare honour of being asked by The British Haiku Society to lend her essays on how to haiku, called ‘the heart of a haiku’ for their website. http://britishhaikusociety.org.uk/teaching-haiku/the-heart-of-a-haiku/ A series of 9 essays covering most of the aesthetic tools that is used when writing a haiku.

Kala is perhaps the only haiku poet in the country who has been collaborating with other performance artists to create a new poetic expression, since the last 6 years. http://punemirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/a-season-for-haiku/articleshow/57224651.cms

 
Books, Anthologies and Articles

• Wishbone Moon, A Women’s Haiku Anthology, Jacar Press USA, 2018. Editors: Roberta Beary, Ellen Compton and Kala Ramesh.

• beyond the horizon beyond – an exclusive collection of 283 haiku and 41 haibun (haiku embedded prose),Vishwakarma Publications, 2017. Official Book Trailer" on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FAMPUQMHt7Q

• Haiku and My Haiku Moments: an Activity Book, Katha Books Delhi, 2010. Reprint, 2017.

• the unseen arc, Kala’s tanka collection, winner of the Snapshot Press eChapbook Award, UK, June 2017.

• one-line twos, in collaboration with Marlene Mountain, an ebook published by Bones, Denmark 2016.

• Editor-in-Chief: Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku. Vishwakarma Publications 2016. Awarded The Best Anthology by the Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards 2017.

• FIRST Katha Ebook of Haiku, Haibun, Senryu and Tanka published by Katha, Editor, Kala Ramesh et al. 2013.

• Joint Editor of Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka 2008, 2009 and 2010 Anthology, USA.

• Anthology credits include: Haiku 21, Haiku 2014: an anthology of contemporary English-language haiku (Modern Haiku Press, 2012) and Haiku in English - the First Hundred Years (W.W. Norton 2013).

• Haiku in India - a Feature in A Hundred Gourds, USA- 1st June 2013

• Kala’s teaching methods in an essay at the Grassroots Outreach for Japanese association for Language Teaching (JALT)

• A HISTORY OF INDIAN HAIKU - Kala RAMESH - The Haiku Foundation

• Essay on Silences as seen in Indian Aesthetics in Under the Basho. 

• Links to Youth Haiku:
• Editor of Cattails YOUTH CONER since January 2015.
  http://www.cattailsjournal.com/archives.html
• Wednesday Haiku link – Yesha Shah & Sneha Mojumdar: Wednesday Haiku, #205.
• Mann Daily Haiku – Cornell University : https://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/kala-ramesh-students/
• Mann Daily Haiku – Cornell University :
  https://haiku.mannlib.cornell.edu/category/author/kala-ramesh-haikuyouth/
• Failed Haiku:  March 2018 issue is out!
  Link: http://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue27.pdf

          This issue has 19 senryu written by Kala’s students. 

Kala Ramesh’s haiku workshops and readings of her work in Literary Festivals:

• HAIKU –LONDON. Sunday 7th Oct @ The Mascara Bar N16 Some of the best international haiku writers read their poems and a presentation of haiku, tanka, tanka prose and haibun by Kala Ramesh
• Speaker at the Naviar Haiku Fest London – 6^th October 2018: http://www.naviarrecords.com/2018/07/15/nhf-iii-london-2018
• Haiku North America Conference at Santa Fe – a 50-minute presentation with a Bharatanatyam dancer Preethi Ramprasad on 16^th Sep, 2017.
• Haiku North America Conference 2017 at Santa Fe – Launch of ‘beyond the horizon beyond’- a book of haiku and haibun by Kala Ramesh.
• British Haiku Society Meet Oct 2017 to ‘Introduce Kala’s book – ‘beyond the horizon beyond’
• Hyderabad Literary Festival – 2008, 2010 & 2013.
• Prakriti Poetry Festival Chennai– 2010 and 2018.
• Pune Biennale – February 2013, & February 2015 and 2017
• Pune International Literary Festival (PILF) September 2013 and in September 2015, with an Australian poet Kathryn Hummel in “Crossing Poetic Genres” and also in September 2016.
• Bookaroo Children’s Literary Festival – Oct 2012 in Delhi, May 2013 in Kashmir, Oct 2013 in Pune, Oct 2014 in Pune, Dec 2015 in Goa and Feb 2018 in Mumbai .
• Katha Utsav, a Katha & CBSE Creative Writers Initiative – Dec 2012, Dec 2013, Dec 2014, Dec 2015 in Bangalore, Delhi in Oct 2016 and Dec 2017.
• Gyaan Adab, Malhar Festival, on 18 July, 2015.
• Haiku North America 2015 Conference at Albany, NY on 15^th Oct 2015. A film by Kala Ramesh on her students’ work – haikuWALL India.
• British Haiku Society’s Winter Gathering at the Conway Hall in London on Saturday 14^thNovember, 2015.
• Pune International Literary Festival 2016. Conducted a 2-hour haiku workshop and had a session called Poetry – from Heart to Heart with Priya Sarukkai.
• Film and Television Institute of India – A workshop for students on Haiku and Haibun on 10^th September, 2016.
• Conducted a 150 plus haiku, tanka and haibun workshops for school children, undergrads and senior citizens.
• As Editor-in-Chief of Naad Anunaad: an Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku, Kala is fortunate to have this world anthology launched at Jaipur Literary Festival 2017 on 20^th of January. At Jaipur Literary Festival 2017: #JLF2017: Book Launch: Naad Anunaad: Haiku Anthology | This anthology won the 1st prize at the Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards for 2017!
• Pune Biennale & The British Council - Kala’s 90-minute reading on 22^nd January 2017.