Content Editors

Our three content editors – Ken Jones, Jim Kacian and Bruce Ross – are also co-editors of Contemporary Haibun, an annual anthology from Red Moon Press. They review submissions to cho independently and then confer as to whether to accept a submission. The criteria they use in evaluating haibun are discussed on the Acceptance Criteria page.

Jim Kacian is a past editor of Frogpond (the international membership journal of the Haiku Society of America, and the largest haiku journal outside of Japan), is past president of the Haiku Society of America and was a co-founder of the World Haiku Association. He has had more than 1,000 haiku published in English-language journals and magazines in more than 20 countries and is a winner of the prestigious James Hackett Award (2002). He has published seven books, all of which have won major awards. He is author of How to Haiku, a primer for English-speaking poets, as well as numerous articles on haiku form and praxis. He owns and operates Red Moon Press, the largest publishing house dedicated to haiku in the world.

Bruce Ross is a past president of the Haiku Society of America. His haiku, haibun, collaborative renga, haiga and articles have appeared in haiku journals worldwide. He authored Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (1998) and How to Haiku: A Student's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms (2001). He has published three collections of original haiku: thousands of wet stones (1988), among floating duckweed (1994) and Silence: Collected Haiku (1997). His latest publication is summer drizzles (2006), a collection of haiku and haibun.

Ken Jones contributes regularly to UK haiku journals and is represented in British and American anthologies. For his contribution to Pilgrim Foxes: Haiku and Haiku Prose, co-authored with Jim Norton and Sean O'Connor, Jones was awarded the Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai. In 2005 his "Travellers" took first place in the annual English Language Haibun Contest. His other collections include Arrow of Stones (British Haiku Society, 2002); Stallion's Crag (Iron Press, 2003); The Parsley Bed: A Collection of Haiku and Haibun (2006). In 2002 he acted as UK judge for the first Nobuyuki Yuasa International Haibun Contest. Jones is a Zen practitioner of 30 years standing, and the author of books on socially engaged Buddhism.

Technical & Managing Editor

Ray Rasmussen designed and manages the cho website. His haiku, haiga, haibun and articles have been accepted for publication in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Contemporary Haibun, Heron's Nest, Simply Haiku, Bottle Rockets, Haigaonline, contemporary haibun online, Roadrunner, Tinywords, Haiku Harvest, The World Haiku Review, Moonset, Blithe Spirit and Lynx. His web page designs are currently used by Simply Haiku and Roadrunner haiku journals. Ray has served as haiga editor for Simply Haiku and haibun editor for the World Haiku Review. Ray dreamt that in a previous life he was a university professor. His web site is http://raysweb.net/haiku/.

Copy Editor

Joyce Hildebrand copy edits and proofreads each issue of cho. Her haibun have been published in Simply Haiku, contemporary haibun online, and Frogpond. Love of language has been the central thread in her editing, teaching, and writing career. Through her Calgary-based business, Speargrass Communications, she offers a variety of wordsmithing services, including content and copy editing services for writers.