Mark (Shimi) Brooks

Mark Brooks (Shimi) is the creator & editor-in-chief of the popular haikai journal haijinx.

Mark's poetry has often been published, anthologized & translated. His haiku and renku have received several awards, including the Mainichi Haiku Contest (first prize), the BHS's James W. Hackett International Haiku Award (highly commended), the HSA's Bernard Lionel Einbond Renku Competition (multiple firsts and seconds), the Snapshots Haiku Calendar Competition (winner and runners-up), and the Penumbra Haiku Competition (finalists).

Mark's first manuscript won The Snapshot Press Haiku Collection Competition in 2002 and was published as his first collection, A Handful of Pebbles (Snapshot Press, 2006).

Mark has given talks on haiku and renku in throughout the United States and his presentation on kigo to the HSA quarterly meeting ("The Poetics of Kigo", Long Beach, December 2001) was well-received that he was invited to repeat it at the next national meeting ("An Approach to Kigo", New Orleans, September 2002). This talk will be published soon.

Mark created the popular haikai journal haijinx in 2001 and it was on hiatus from 2004-2009. In 2010, Mark relaunched the haijinx site and the return issue appeared in December 2010.

Mark has used the haigô Shimi (silverfish) for haikai since 2004. Earlier haiku and renku are signed Mark Brooks.

Mark lives in Georgetown, Texas, with his wife and two boys.