“Haiku that Move Us” – Limited-Enrollment Online Class with Scott Mason
This four-session Zoom class will focus on the reader’s experience of haiku, utilizing a combination of mini-presentations by the instructor and class discussion—principally of participants’ haiku written to supplied prompts and presented anonymously. The class will be limited to eight participants (minimum of five), with the enrollment fee going in its entirety to The Haiku Foundation. In its inaugural run last August, this class received the highest evaluation rating from all eight participants.
Dates/times: Four successive Wednesdays next month (beginning February 4, 2026) from 7-9 PM EST.
Class fee: Price for this class is being held at $375.00 (or $325.00 for any participant under 35). This will be processed as a donation to THF and may be partially tax-deductible.
Class prerequisites:
- access to email and Zoom
- acquaintance with The Wonder Code: Discover the Way of Haiku and See the World with New Eyes (available to read here at no charge from The Haiku Foundation’s Digital Library), in order to establish a common baseline of haiku familiarity among class participants
- agreement to complete an evaluation by the week following the last class session
Enrollment procedure: Email Scott at SCMviaNet(at)aol.com [Subject line: Haiku that Move Us] to determine if you are among the first eight sign-ups, in which case you will then receive payment instructions and the first-session assignment; the enrollment deadline for this class is Wednesday, January 21, 2026, although available spaces may fill before that date.
About the instructor: Scott Mason is on the board of The Haiku Foundation and a former associate editor (2011-2021) with The Heron’s Nest. His book The Wonder Code received the Kirkus Star from Kirkus Reviews, the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award from The Haiku Foundation and a Merit Book Award from the Haiku Society of America. Scott’s own haiku have placed first in more than two dozen international competitions.
Student reviews:
“The best haiku class I’ve taken: best prepared, best designed, most insightful, most comprehensive.”
“Scott was an excellent presenter. His attitude is so positive, so inclusive of various types of Haiku writing.”
“The thought, organization and facilitation of the class was outstanding. Scott was consistently pleasant, knowledgeable and articulate in his teaching of this class. Also, I have been in courses capping the number of attendees at 12 or perhaps 15 on Zoom but really found the even lower count – there were eight of us – to be ideal.”
Here are some responses to the question, “What did you personally find most valuable in the class?”
“The time spent critiquing each other’s work at the start of each class was invaluable. I appreciated the supportive atmosphere Scott created, which sparked lively discussions and allowed us to explore our selected poems in greater depth.”
“Stepping into the world of haiku with a structured approach, yet based in feeling and transformation. In other words, Scott provides a framework with guardrails to encourage us to experiment in creating haiku that engage and possibly change the reader.”
“Bringing together a community of poets for collective exploration opened up a world of learning for me. Each weekly lesson was full of insights on how to make a haiku resonate with readers. It was as if a curtain had been drawn aside, inviting us to delve deep into the intricate nuances of the writing haiku and discover its beauty.”
