Michael Dylan Welch is first vice president of the Haiku Society of America. He has been writing haiku since 1976, and teaching it since about 1990. In 1991 he cofounded the Haiku North America conference, and in 1996 he cofounded the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library in Sacramento, the largest public collection of haiku poetry outside Japan. In 2000, he founded the Tanka Society of America, serving as is president for five years. From 1989 to 1997, he edited the haiku journal Woodnotes, and he currently edits Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem. He also has a press, Press Here, that has specialized in haiku and tanka books since 1989. His own haiku, tanka, and longer poems have been published in hundreds of journals and anthologies in more than a dozen languages, and he has won first prize in the Henderson, Brady, Drevniok, and Tokutomi haiku and senryu contests, among others. He is also a board member of the Washington Poets Association and the Redmond Association of Spokenword, and curates the SoulFood Poetry Night near where he lives in Sammamish, Washington. Michael also served as a judge for the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Haiku Invitational awards for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. His personal Web site, Graceguts, provides numerous essays on learning and exploring haiku, and he especially recommends reading "Becoming a Haiku Poet." Michael is delighted to encourage the appreciation of cherry blossoms as well as haiku through the support of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival.