Biographical Background

Gene Doty is a professor of writing at the University of Missouri at Rolla. He began teaching at Rolla in 1967. Different courses he has taught include Freshman Composition, Creative Writing, Technical Writing, Advanced Composition, and the Bible as Literature, World Literature, and Fantasy Literature. He has also written quite a bit of poetry in his career.

Mr. Doty lived much of his life under the name Eugene Warren. In 1988 he reassumed his birth name of Gene Doty. He married a woman named Rosalee in January of 1963. They have four children and seven grandchildren (as of 1998). Being a grandfather satisfies him more than almost anything else that has happened. They are, also, attached to our animal companion, a collie-terrier mix named Eight-Ball.

Doty received a Bachelor of Arts in English and Fine Art from Emporia State University in 1966 and a Master of Arts in English from that school in 1967. Another name that he had assumed in 1959 was and is still used today, is Gino Peregrini. His first summer out of high school.

This profile of haiku writer, Gene Doty, was researched, written and created by Stevan Doll.

Scroll through the entire profile, or jump to any section:

• biographical background
• reader response essay
• bibliography
• additional web links & resource

Reader Response Essay

Gene Doty is a writer of many things not only Haiku. He has two current books of poems and they are: Zero: Thirty Ghazals and Nose to Nose which is a published set of haiku. He is very interested in Altaic (Turkish) epic or legend.

Nose to Nose is a collection of Gene Doty’s original haiku. When reading these they seem to be very contemporary which personally I enjoy very much. He tends to write about real life situations and things that really make sense therefore making it easier for the average haiku reader to understand in their first look. After reading several different authors’ haiku this semester, he most reminds me of George Swede in his haiku writing. George Swede was probably the most influential haiku writer to myself, and now that I have read some of Mr. Doty’s work I see a very nice similarity.

Some of Mr. Doty’s Haiku are:

nose to nose
the dog and the mouse
under his paw

This was the opening poem to his collection Nose to Nose and it just gives me a great sense of imagery. Many of the haiku are just very gentle on the senses and easy to get into.

Author's Books

Zero: Thirty Ghazals

Nose to Nose

Additional Web Links and Resources

His homepage address is: http://www.umr.edu/~gdoty/