The Haiku Society of America has given Van den Heuvel three Merit Book Awards for his haiku. He was the honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives at the
California State Library at Sacramento for 1999–2000. He worked at
Newsweek magazine in the layout department until he retired in 1988. He was the United States representative to the 1990 International Haiku Symposium in Matsuyama. At the World Haiku Festival held in London and Oxford in 2000, he received a World Haiku Achievement Award. In 2002, he was awarded The
Masaoka Shiki International Haiku Awards in
Matsuyama, for his writing and editing of haiku books. He has been described in
The Alsop Review as "an intelligent and unflagging spokesperson for haiku". ==Bibliography==