Born April 23, 1948 in Suffern New York, Christopher Herold moved with his parents to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was eight years old. He lived there until New Year’s Eve 1998 when he and his wife, Carol, made Port Townsend, Washington their home. Their daughter lives in Port Townsend as well. Their family is flourishing.

As well as being a haiku poet, Christopher is a musician, and a Buddhist lay monk. Since 1968 when Herold wrote his first haiku during a practice period at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery, his haiku have been published far and wide and his work has been translated into at least eleven languages. His work has received numerous awards.

As a professional drummer, he had a high profile career in blues, rock, and jazz bands, including Kingfish, the top-selling new band in the U. S. in 1976. He has also gigged and/or recorded with John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Jerry Garcia, Mike Bloomfield, and many others.

Christopher’s haiku “career” includes having taught haiku in schools and in adult workshop settings. He was a president of the Haiku Poets of Northern California (HPNC) and co-edited their journal, Woodnotes. He was on the organizing committee of first Haiku North America (HNA) Conference (1991) and co-organizer of HNA 2005 in Port Townsend. In 1999, Christopher co-founded the highly respected haiku journal, The Heron’s Nest, for which he was Managing Editor until 2008. Christopher has served as a judge for Haiku Society of America contests and for contests of other organizations, including the haiku division of the Washington State Poets Association, the Hawaii Education Assn., National League of National Pen Women, Haiku Poets of Northern California, and Japan Airlines.

Christopher also writes tanka, and haibun and is passionately involved in the world of renku. He was a long-time member of California’s Marin Renku Group and In 2008 co-founded the Port Townsend Renku Club.

Christopher’s books include In Other Words (Jarus Books, 1981); Coincidence (Kanshiketsu Press, 1987); Voices of Stone (Kanshiketsu Press, 1995); A Path in the Garden (Katsura Press, 2000 – winner of a Haiku Society of
America Merit Book Award); In the Margins of the Sea (Snapshot Press, 2000, a winner in the Snapshot Manuscript Competition), and Inside Out (Red Moon Press, October 2010).