When I first introduced John Stevenson to the then mostly-lawyer readership of f/k/a in March 2005, I began “Trust me, nobody has better haiku credentials than John Stevenson.” Well, John’s about to gild his haijin resume with yet another indication of the esteem he has garnered in the haikai community: Christopher Herold, founding editor of The Heron’s Nest, announced today that he is about to give up his role as Managing Editor of that much-admired haiku journal, and is passing the mantle to John Stevenson. [Kudos and many thanks to Christopher for creating and maintaining one of the most valued treasures of English language haiku.] Here’s some of what Christopher had to say about John and his prior relationship as a poet with The Heron’s Nest:
“I am delighted to tell you that, beginning with the first issue of Volume X 2008, John Stevenson will be the Managing Editor of The Heron’s Nest. As most of you know, John is currently the Editor of the Haiku Society of America’s journal, Frogpond (Associate Editor, 2002-2004; Editor, 2005-2007). . . .
“Beyond his considerable contributions to the Haiku Society of America, John Stevenson has been one of the most consistently applauded poets in The Heron’s Nest as well as its most prolifically published poet. Two of John’s poems appeared in the inaugural issue of The Heron’s Nest (September 1999) and since then he has only been absent from its pages on four occasions. To date, 88 of his poems have been published in The Nest. Of those, three have won Heron’s Nest Awards [as best in the issue], five have been runners-up to the award, and three more received numerous votes in the end-of-the-year Readers’ Choice Awards and were subsequently chosen for Special Mention. A magnificent accomplishment and all the more reason to welcome John Stevenson as the most natural successor to my position of Managing Editor (the unanimous wish, by the way, of the entire Heron’s Nest team).”
Back in February, we noted with pride that John was chosen as the Most Popular Poet in THN’s Readers’ Choice Awards for 2006. The f/k/a Gang agrees that John was indeed “the most natural” choice to head The Heron’s Nest and continue its role as a foremost haiku publication, “where tradition and innovation meet … and complement each other.”
Here are the first two haiku published by John Stevenson in The Heron’s Nest — Vol. 1, #1 (1999):
my son noticing . . .
the attention i pay
to butterflies
falling leaves—
several trees
in the woodpile
If there is one downside for The Heron’s Nest and its fans, it is that John, as Managing Editor, may not be presenting his own poems at THN. Other haiku publications will surely be looking forward to receiving more of his poetry. You can see some of John’s best and freshest work in Upstate Dim Sum, the biannual anthology of the Route 9 Haiku Group.
update (Feb. 4, 2008) : See “latest edition of Frogpond is Stevenson’s last.”
Some of the Silence (Red Moon Press, 1999) was John Stevenson’s first full collection of haiku. I continue to recommend it highly. You can find much more of John’s work right here at f/k/a, through links on his archive page. We have featured his poems in over 80 posts in the past 30 months.
Also try John’s fine 2004 collection, Quiet Enough (Red Moon Press) 
p.s. I hope John won’t mind too much this spotlight on his newest accomplishment — not to mention the dorky graphic that I stuck at the intro to this posting. I’m sure he’ll take it out on me the next time we get to play bocce in Schenectady’s Central Park. With the help of his stellar crew of Associate Editors at The Heron’s Nest, he’ll surely have time this winter for another round of snow bocce.
snow bocce —
left the pooper scooper
at home………………. by dagosan