Lenard Moore, a native of North Carolina, and U.S. Army Veteran, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Carolina African American Writers' Collective and chair of the 2019 Haiku North America conference. Moore's work has appeared in over 400 publications, such as Callaloo, African American Review, Obsidian, Prairie Schooner, North Carolina Literary Review, and North American Review. His work also has appeared in over 100 anthologies, including The Haiku Anthology (Norton, 1999). books include The Open Eye (NC Haiku Society Press, 1985), The Open Eye, Limited 30th Anniversary Edition (Mountains & Rivers Press, 2015), among others. The Geography of Jazz (Mountains and Rivers Press, 2018) celebrates music and Jazz musicians. He is recipient of the Haiku Museum of Tokyo Award (1983, 1994 and 2003), 1992 First Prize Winner in Traditional Style Haiku sponsored by Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo, Japan), Sam Ragan Award in the Fine Arts (2006) Raleigh Medal of Arts for Lifetime Achievement (2008), and North Carolina Award for Literature (2014). He is former President of the Haiku Society of America and the longtime Executive Chairman of the NC Haiku Society. He teaches Creative Writing and African American Literature at the University of Mount Olive.