Learn how haiku developed in the English language.

Click on either the Finding Aid or the Archive page above to explore our archives.

This digital archive is in development and currently represents just a fraction of the physical materials we have catalogued at the Nick Virgilio Writers House on 1801 Broadway in Camden, New Jersey. Our archives contain hundreds of letters and manuscripts from established academics, writers, and editors. Many of the documents are addressed to our namesake Nick Virgilio, and have literary, cultural, and historical significance. The archives were stored in four large cartons that we began organizing and cataloging in a filing cabinet based on provenance.

By the end of 2023 we were able to complete the cataloging of one carton. By the 2nd quarter of 2024, we cataloged carton #2. The other two cartons are mainly ephemera, financial, and personal effects. 315 pages of original archival documents that are relevant to haiku in American poetry have been cataloged. These documents were preserved in plastic sleeves and organized in folders according to who sent the letter or wrote the manuscript.

The 36 authors whose works have so far been digitized from these cartons are listed as follows, last name listed first alphabetically: Amann, Eric; Atwood, Anna; Blyth, RH; Bull, James; Davidson, L.A.; Brooks, Randy; Enslin, Ted; Eulert, Don; Harr, Lorraine Ellis; Henderson, Harold; Henderson, Mary; Higginson, William; Hoyt, Clement; Kanterman, Leroy; Kennedy, X.J. (Joe); Keyser, Gustave; Lamb, Bruce; Lamb, Elizabeth; Lloyd, David; Lundin, Judith; McClintock, Michael; Mormino, Kay Titus; Niles, Faye; Polak, Maralyn; Porad, Francine; Rotella, Alexis; Saito, George; Sato, Kazuo; Spiess, Robert; Tico, Tom; Untermeyer, Louis; van den Heuvel, Cor; Virgil, Anita; Virgilio, Nick; Wilbur, Richard; and Willmot, Rod.