SMILING CRICKET HAIKU: February 2026

13 February 2026

zimska obala —

čeprkam po krhotinama

tuđeg života

winter shore —

digging through the debris

of someone else’s life

Blithe Spirit 36.1

(Journal of the British Haiku Society)

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BIOGRAPHY

DEJAN PAVLINOVIĆ was born in 1968 in Pula, Croatia, but spent part of his childhood in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Today he is an English and German teacher, part-time tour guide and member of the indie band The Chweger from Pula. He serves on the Iris haiku magazine editorial staff, and he is the founding editor of the Haiku HR Facebook page. He runs the Pula Gymnasium Haiku Club in his school and conducts haiku workshops for students and adults. He judges haiku competitions for both children and adults. He has been writing haiku since 2007. His work is featured in two Croatian haiku anthologies. His poems have been published in Croatia and abroad, awarded and commended on Croatian and international haiku competitions (Kusamakura Haiku Competition, ITOEN, Vladimir Devide Award, The Betty Drevniok Award, Mainichi Haiku Contest, Vancouver Cherry Blossom, Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum Haiku Contest, R.H. Blyth Award, Santoka Haiga Contest, Ukiah Haiku Festival, Sōka Matsubara International Haiku Contest...). Likewise, his poems have been published in various national and international haiku magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies (Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Blithe Spirit, Presence, IRIS haiku magazine, The Haiku Foundation, Chrysanthemum, Seashores, Senryu To, World Haiku Review, NHK TV Haiku Masters, Poetry Pea Podcast, A Hundred Gourds, The Asahi Shimbun, Haikuniverse, Under the Basho, The Mamba Journal, Failed Haiku, Ephemerae, Cattails, Wales Haiku Journal, Blo͞o Outlier Journal, Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, My Haiku Pond, World Haiku, Scarlet Dragonfly, Sketchbook...). Pavlinović’s haiku was featured on the Mann Library Daily Haiku page of Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) during the month of April 2023. He publishes his haiku both in English and Croatian on his Smiling Cricket Haiku blog. In 2016 he published his first book, ''MLIJEČNOM STAZOM - DOWN THE MILKY WAY'', a collection of haiku poetry written in both Croatian and English (foreword and afterword by Jane Reichhold and Djurdja Vukelic Rozic, and blurbs by George Swede and Chen-ou Liu). In 2021 he published ''NEXUS HAIKU'', a co-authored and co-created bilingual collection of haiku, senryu, haiku sequences and rengay, where all poems were composed equally and collaboratively during a period of three years by Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić and Dejan Pavlinović. Pavlinović publishes his second solo book ''LINIJE ŽIVOTA / LIFE LINES / 生命線'' in 2024, a collection of haiku poetry written in Croatian, English and Japanese (foreword by Nina Kovačić, and blurbs by Michael Dudley and Ikuyo Yoshimura).

''MLIJEČNOM STAZOM - DOWN THE MILKY WAY'' is Pavlinović's first haiku collection and it contains 100 of his haiku poems from a period of 2007-2016, including those published, awarded and commended ones on various competitions. The book is entirely bilingual (Croatian and English) since he writes and publishes in both languages. The foreword was written by the eminent American author and theorist of haiku poetry and other short Japanese forms, Jane Reichhold. The afterword was written by Djurdja Vukelic Rozic, one of the leading poets and promoters of haiku poetry in Croatia and its wider region. Respectable and awarded authors George Swede and Chen-ou Liu contributed with their short blurbs. The book received excellent reviews, among others also in notable haiku magazines, such as BLITHE SPIRIT (the official journal of the British Haiku Society), FROGPOND (the official journal of the Haiku Society of America) and the Japanese haiku magazine SENRYU TO.

''NEXUS HAIKU'' is a co-authored and co-created bilingual (English and Croatian) collection of haiku, senryu, haiku sequences and rengay. All poems were composed equally and collaboratively during a period of three years by Michael Dudley, Tomislav Maretić and Dejan Pavlinović. Working co-operatively together on the poems created an ebb-and-flow process that allowed continual opportunities for organic expressions of complementary energies; complexities of ideas; shifts of perspectives; and juxtapositions of personal and cultural experiences, perceptions, and memories. The 120 pages of the book have been enriched with Sanela Pliško's foreword and Nina Šestanović's illustrations, as well as blurbs written by Gilles Fabre and Đurđa Vukelić Rožić. The authors of NEXUS haiku are established haiku poets whose haiku poems have been awarded and commended in many Canadian, Croatian and international competitions, and have been published in numerous national and international haiku magazines, newspapers, websites and anthologies. NEXUS haiku is the winner of the 2021 Borivoj Bukva Award for best haiku collection published in Croatia, presented by the Croatian Literary Society.

''LINIJE ŽIVOTA / LIFE LINES / 生命線'' is Pavlinović's third (second solo) collection of haiku poetry comprising 100 haiku poems, including those published, awarded, and commended in various domestic and international competitions. The book has 156 pages, and is trilingual (Croatian, English, and Japanese), with the English translations of the poems done by the author himself, as he writes and publishes in both Croatian and English, while the Japanese translations are the work of Japanese poet Ikuyo Yoshimura. The foreword was written by the distinguished Croatian haiku poet Nina Kovačić, and the book features short reviews by renowned Canadian poet Michael Dudley and translator and poet Ikuyo Yoshimura. Additional contributors include Sanela Pliško (co-editor), Matko Plovanić (cover, layout, and design), and Thierry Dubois (illustrations). The book is published by TONDAK in 2024.