Background
Van den Heuvel was born in Biddeford, Maine, and grew up in Maine and New Hampshire.
Van den Heuvel was born in Biddeford, Maine, and grew up in Maine and New Hampshire.
He first discovered haiku in 1958 in San Francisco where he heard Gary Snyder mention it at a poetry reading. He returned to the East Coast the following year and continued composing haiku. He became the house poet of a Boston coffee house, reading haiku and other poetry to jazz musical accompaniment.
By 1961 he was reading haiku at a New York City coffeehouse.
In 1971 he joined the Haiku Society of America and became its president in 1978.