Economics Professor Steve Ziliak's article on haiku economics is one of Poetry magazine's most read in 2011

Posted: 01/27/2012

An article on haiku economics by Roosevelt University Economics Professor Stephen Ziliak has been cited by Poetry magazine as one of the journal’s most-read articles of 2011.

Published in Poetry’s “The View From Here” column in January 2011, Ziliak’s “Haiku Economics: Money, Metaphor, and the Invisible Hand” explores the relation between haiku poetry, feelings, language, politics and economics.

“Pop a cork. Let’s write some poems,” said Ziliak, who regularly assigns haiku-writing to students in his economics class. “The odds of getting published in Poetry are not high. It is very satisfying to me to hear that my article has inspired so much readership, writing and conversation,” he added.

Previous contributors to Poetry’s “The View From Here” have included philosopher Richard Rorty, author Christopher Hitchens, comedian Lynda Barry, singer-songwriter Neko Case and poet and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.

“Haiku and economics are a lot alike. People don’t realize it, but both disciplines strive for precision and innovation, for relevance and efficiency,” said Ziliak. “Writing haiku can stimulate great discussion about economic theory and policy issues. It brings us together and it makes us happy telling economic stories together,” he said.

The professor’s emphasis on haiku as a teaching tool recently led to the recession-haiku craze featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Atlantic, The Economist, on National Public Radio and in Roosevelt University’s Roosevelt Review alumni magazine.

“Haiku poetry can add something more to the education of economics –and that is feelings, which is something, as I show in my Poetry article, that has been lacking in economists since John Stuart Mill,” Ziliak said.

Ziliak’s article is one of the most-read in the column’s history, according to Fred Sasaki, associate editor of Poetry, which is one of the most prestigious journals in the English-speaking world, publishing less than one percent of the more than 100,000 submissions received annually.

To view Poetry’s top selections for 2011 and/or to read Ziliak’s article, visit http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2011/12/the-poetry-foundations-most-read-articles-of-2011/

For a look at haiku economics published in the Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, and haiku written by Roosevelt students of Ziliak’s class, visit http://sites.roosevelt.edu/sziliak/haiku-economics-by-roosevelt-students/

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