"Openness, a quiet mind, a fertile emptiness—
these are states that receive
the experience that makes the poem"

—Peggy Lyles

Peggy Willis Lyles

Biographical Background

Peggy Willis Lyles was born September 17, 1939, in Summerville, South Carolina. She attended the College of Charleston, and earned her B.A. degree from Columbia College in South Carolina and an M.A. in English from Tulane University, where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She taught briefly at Sophie Newcomb College and High Point College in North Carolina, as well as the University of Georgia. For five years she was poetry editor of Georgia Journal, a regional magazine. Proud parents and grandparents, she and her husband now live in Tucker, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. They have a special affinity for the South Carolina low country and enjoy frequent visits there.

Besides being a well-rounded writer, she also is accomplished as a painter. She is a member of the Charleston Artist Guild and the Atlanta Artist’s Club.

For more than 20 years, Peggy Lyle’s haiku have been widely published in the United States and abroad. She has won many awards, and her works is included in a growing number of anthologies, among them William J. Higginson’s Haiku Handbook and Haiku World; Bruce Ross’ Haiku Moment; The Haiku Anthology, second and third editions, edited by Cor van den Heuvel; and Global Haiku, edited by George Swede and Randy Brooks

This profile of haiku writer, Peggy Lyles, was researched, written and created by Katie Hill and Lidonna Beer.

See Lidonna Beer's interview with Lyles

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

• biographical background
• reader response
• author awards
• bibliography

Reader Response Essay

See Katie Hill's reader response essay on some of Lyle's haiku:

Katie Hill on Peggy Lyle's Haiku

See Lidonna Beer's reader response essay on Lyle's haiku:

Lidonna Beer on Peggy Lyle's Haiku

Author Awards

Her accomplishments include a long-standing member of the Haiku Society of America, Honorable mention of the Harold G. Henderson Memorial Haiku Award in 1980 and 1986. She also received the Museum of Haiku Literature Award in 1985.

Author's Books

Her minature chapbooks include:

Red leaves in the air, High/Coo Press, 1979,

Still at the edge, Swamp Press, 1980, and

Thirty-six tones, Saki Press, 1999.