Abigail Friedman is an award-winning haiku poet who began composing haiku in Japanese while living in Japan as an American diplomat. At the time, she was the only non-Japanese member of a haiku group led by haiku master Momoko Kuroda. Friedman is the sole author of four haiku-related books: The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 2006); I Wait for the Moon: 100 Haiku of Momoko Kuroda (Stone Bridge Press, 2014); Street Chatter Fading (Larkspur Press, 2015); and The Azaleas are Silent (Haiku Nature Press, 2025, available for purchase through haikunaturepress@gmail.com). Her haiku and essays on haiku have appeared in numerous anthologies and publications globally. While living in Quebec, she founded the first bilingual haiku group in Quebec City. She later founded and currently leads the Japan-America Society Haiku Group of Washington, D.C. Friedman has been a judge since 2014 for the popular Golden Triangle haiku contest and more recently for the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s first ever haiku contest, held this past year. Among her awards, Friedman received first prize in the Yamanashi Mt. Fuji haiku contest and twice second prize in the Mainichi international haiku contest. She currently resides in Washington, D.C.