Randy Brooks

Randy Brooks, pictured with his wife Shirley Brooks, co-founded High/Coo Books with her in 1976, publishing haiku chapbooks. Nick Virgilio desperately wanted to publish a book of his own and reached out to them about publication. However, Virgilio was not keen on the terms of publication with a small press, having aspirations for larger profits publishing with a major press. This just was not feasible in publishing poetry let alone the nascent advent of haiku. In these letters between Brooks and Virgilio there is a negotiation for the publication of a book that never materializes. Virgilio chose to go with “a better offer” and eventually his Selected Haiku was published by Black Moss Press.