Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
The Weight of Lightness
by Tony Pupello
New Contests
Check out the latest contests
Publications
Explore publications
Thanks, as always, to the New Zealand Poetry Society for giving us space on its site – free of charge. If you’d consider joining the NZPS, it would be a small repayment for the hosting and support that we receive out of kindness. For those within New Zealand, your membership fees are tax deductible, as is any donation you make over the top of the annual sub. Read more about joining and membership benefits here, including how to join if you live outside New Zealand.
If you’d like to recommend an article, offer to write something for these pages, or generally have something to say about haiku and its related forms, please feel free to get in touch with me, Sandra Simpson. If you find any broken links within an article please let me know. Time passes and websites disappear but clicking on a broken link is always frustrating so I’d like to keep them up to date if I can.
Archives comprise Essays, Articles, NZ Haiku Showcase
and Haiku Commentary.
Contest Results
Betty Drevniok Haiku Award (Canada)
Kaji Aso Haiku Contest (US)
Irmo Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Contest (US)
BHS Awards (UK)
Martin Lucas Haiku Award (UK)
High/Coo Chapbook Competition (US)
News & Events
Quail Eggs Tanka Journal
To be published quarterly online, Quail Eggs is a new journal for tanka and closely related forms, such as tan-renga and tanka prose, edited by Alison Williams.
Submit: For issue 2 from August 1-31. Full details from this website.
Sensory Journey anthology
A Sensory Journey is the anthology from last year’s Haiku Down Under online gathering with the poems either written during workshops or break times or inspired during the weekend. The balance of the print run is now on general sale, with 10 copies in New Zealand so saving on postage costs for Kiwis (the rest are in Australia). There are various options available so please contact Carole Harrison (Australia) or Sue Courtney (NZ) for more information. See a small sampler of poems here.
Congratulations
To Owen Bullock who has received an Honourable Mention in the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards (US).
To Sandra Simpson, who has been placed Third equal in the John Bird Haiku Dreaming Award (Australia). See all the winning poems, their artworks and the judges’ comments here.
Farewell to two contests
The aha haiku contest (August) and Fleeting Words Tanka Contest (April-May) are no more. The energies of the organisers will instead go into the Waka Society of America. Read more here.
End Notes
June 30, 2025: Winter is bringing us some challenges this year with flooding, heavy rain, high winds so I hope your woodpile remains well-stocked, along with your pantry, and that your gumboots remain unleaky!
The Contest listing has been refreshed, with some new contest among the old favourites, and our article this month is about understanding wabi-sabi, a good topic for winter. Maybe it will light a creative spark or two in the darkest season. – Sandra
HAIKU EVENTS 2025
Aug 22 National Poetry Day, NZ. Read more here.
Sept 24-28 Haiku North America, San Francisco, USA. Read more here.
Oct 23-26 Seabeck Haiku Getaway, Washington State, USA. Read more here.