Quamrul Hassan, the first Bangladeshi poet to publish authoritative collections on haiku, conducted a workshop on the traditional Japanese form of short poetry at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) on March 11.
More than 20 haiku enthusiasts attended the workshop, organised by the Department of English and Humanities and Paper Canoe, a ULAB literary society, says a press release. Hassan demonstrated various technicalities of a successful haiku. The interactive workshop included an account of the personal pitfalls experienced by a novice haiku practitioner. The second part of the workshop required the participants to write haikus on a given theme. The poems produced during the creative session went through rigorous scanning by both the facilitator and the members present.
Paper Canoe adviser Sarker Hasan Al Zayed inaugurated the workshop. Head of the department Shamsad Mortuza gave the concluding remarks. Inspired by the success of the workshop, ULAB has decided to float a haiku competition for its students. The best five haikus will be published in MUSE, the mouthpiece of ULAB English students.