How Do You Haiku? A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates

by Danna Smith

Plumbago Press, 2023

I’m jiggling in my seat with joy! How Do You Haiku? A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates by Danna Smith is out in the world! I love snapping photos and writing haiku poems to go with them, so imagine my excitement when Danna invited me to contribute to her haiku project! What an honor!

Danna is swinging by the blog today to tell us a little more about her newest book. She has graciously shared some of the pages in her book. Let’s get to it.

Welcome, Danna! I’m so glad you are stopping by today to visit. Tell us about yourself.

Thank you, Angie, I’m happy to be here. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah but have lived in northern California for the past 22 years. My children are grown, and my husband and I are expecting our first grandchild soon! Writing for children is more than my career—it’s my passion. I am so fortunate to wake up and able to work at my dream job every day. In my spare time I love walking nature trails, reading, gardening, and doing yoga.

A first grandchild, how exciting! Congratulations for the new baby-on-the-way AND your newest book! I’d love to live close enough to walk those nature trails with you and share grandbaby stories.

How long have you been writing poetry? When did you become interested in haiku?

I’ve loved words and wordplay for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first poem when I was eight years old and haven’t stopped since. I was introduced to Haiku in elementary school. The idea of observing nature through poetry appealed to me. And counting syllables felt like a word game! Today, I fill my haiku journal with haibun (haiku with story) and hagia (haiku with art) too!

I love this! Nature is amazing! And you are right, syllable counting is like a game. I LOVE wordplay.

Congratulations on the release of your new book How Do You Haiku? A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates! What inspired you to write this book?

Thank you! I’m very excited for its release! I wanted to write a book that I would have loved to read when I was a child. One that explained how to write haiku in simple steps and gave me ways to celebrate my work. The book is loaded with fun activities like how to write haiku comics, a poetry-on-the-go travel game, and templates to use when sharing poems with others.

This is a great resource for writers! I imagine teachers will be able to use it as well when they are teaching students about writing haiku.

The reading age for How Do You Haiku? A Step-by-Step Guide with Templates is listed at 8-12 years, but as a 60-ish writer, I cannot wait to read and apply the information in this guide. How did you decide on this age range?

I agree! It’s really a book for readers ages 8 & up. Poets of all levels will enjoy it whether they are just starting to write haiku or want to refresh their knowledge. The age range listed for the book is simply a technicality on the publishing side of things.

That’s good to know. Not that a listed age range has ever stopped me from using the books I want to use! LOL.

As the sole creator of your new book, what were some of the tasks you needed to complete?

This book was such a pleasure to write. There were a few must haves for me:

1. Haiku is one of the oldest poetry forms and the rules can get quite complicated. With that in mind, my main goal was to teach haiku to my readers in its simplest form so it wouldn’t feel overwhelming.
2. It had to be fun! I wanted to pack this little handbook full of lots of activities and templates that would appeal to a wide range of readers to get them excited about reading and writing poetry.
3. I wanted to encourage my readers to share their work with others, which can be scary for some.
4. I also wanted to share a bit of haiku history by including quotes and short biographies of four of the great haiku masters.

It was my goal to make this book part instruction, part pep-talk, and a whole lot of wordplay.

Your book covers all of the haiku bases. I just received my copy and I look forward to reading your haiku poems, reading from the haiku masters, reading haiku by a variety of writers, and then practicing by writing new haiku. What a great resource! It’s the perfect introduction to haiku.

I was honored to contribute two haiku poems and one photo to your book. Why did you decide to include the work of other contributors? How did that choice change how you wrote and compiled the book?

First, I want to thank you and the other poets and children’s book authors for contributing your amazing poetry and photos to the making of this book! I could not have done it without you all!

I chose to include the work of other poets to make the book more interesting and fulfilling. There are many books with the master’s poetry and there are a few books with my poetry, but I imagined combining the three would give my readers a variety of  poetry and an experience that they couldn’t get anywhere else.

Since the book included contributing poet’s work, the pressure was on!  I wanted contributors to love the book as much as I do. I wanted them to be proud to have their names on the cover and their poetry tucked inside.

Well done! Your plan worked very well. I am thrilled with the book!

Peek-A-Boo Haiku: A Lift-the-Flap Book (Simon & Schuster), came out in February, and you have several other titles available, such as One Blue Gnu, The Thank You Book, and The Complete Book of Aspen. You write for different age levels and genres. Tell us a little more about that.

I wrote my first picture book in a high school creative writing class and loved the process. It was then that I vowed to work hard at becoming a published picture book author one day. I published my first picture book in 2004 with Disney-Hyperion and have gone on to author many more. Then the board book bug hit me 😊. I wrote my first board book, Wake Up, Freight Train! and it was such fun! I love that I get to be a part of introducing the littlest readers to books for the first time! My fourth and fifth board book will be published in 2025.

You could say I became a novelist by accident. One day I took a DNA test and learned that the man who raised me was not my biological father. The foundation I built my life around had crumbled. As I always do, I started writing poetry for therapy. After I wrote about 12 poems, I showed them to my agent with the idea of writing a novel in verse based on my DNA discovery.  She was on board and two years later the book was published. The Complete Book of Aspen is a novel in verse (ages 14 & up), that delves into the emotional journey of a 15-year-old girl named Aspen as she discovers a long-kept family secret that challenges her identity.

Wonderful! I love hearing about your different books.

What are you working on now (if you can tell us)? Any surprises coming up?

I have five new books releasing in 2024-2026 including a couple more Little Golden Books. In the meantime, I am working on a big picture book project that I’m very excited about. It hasn’t been officially announced yet so mums the word for now. I’m also working on a few new board books that I hope my publisher will love.

Congratulations! It’s going to be a couple of exciting years for you!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, Danna. Best wishes to you as you continue to dream up new projects!

Thank you again for having me! It’s been a pleasure.

Here are some ways you can connect with Danna.

Website: https://dannasmithbooks.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannasmithbooks/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1719048.Danna_Smith

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChU0YjFV6VcB7Xn8HG3a-YA

Poetry Blog: https://poetrypop.com/