several experiments with haibun in his 1984 collection A Wave.

The first contest for English-language haibun took place in 1996, organized by poet and editor Michael Dylan Welch, and judged by Tom Lynch and Cor van den Heuvel. Anita Virgil won first prize, and honorable mentions (in alphabetical order) went to Sydney Bougy, David Cobb, and John Stevenson. The contest resulted in the publication of Wedge of Light (Press Here) in 1999. As credited by Welch, the first anthology of English-language