Haiku Happenings

This Month’s Article

Check out this month’s article:

‘Verbing’ in Haiku

by Brad Bennett

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New Contests

Check out the latest contests

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Publications

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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.

MEMBERSHIPS

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.

ARCHIVE

Archives comprise Essays, Articles, NZ Haiku Showcase
and Haiku Commentary.

Contest Results

Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (US)

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Kusamakura Haiku Contest (Japan)

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Polish Haiku Contest (Poland)

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Porad Haiku Contest (US)

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Triveni Haiku Awards (India)

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 WHJ Summer Contest (Wales)

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Ama Pearls Waka Contest (US)

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Basho Memorial Haiku Contest (Japan)

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Sanford Goldstein Tanka Contest (US)

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TSA Tanka Prose Contest (US)

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Japan Fair Haiku Contest (US)

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Morioka Haiku Contest (Japan)

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News & Events

Online Haiku Workshop 1

Tutor: Scott Mason, award-winning haiku poet and editor.
When: Four Wednesdays from February 4, 7-9pm (EST) which is 1-3pm in New Zealand (I hope, please check that an allowance has been made for Daylight Saving).
How: Via Zoom.
Cost: $US375 or $US325 for anyone aged under 35.
Full details from the website. Class numbers limited to 8.

Online Haiku Workshop 2

When: Five online workshops available, weekly from January 27.
Who: Various tutors on topics including haiku, senryu and rengay (Sherry and Zoe Grant from New Zealand).
Cost: Unknown, may be free.
Open to: May be only for Australians, but the tutors are international and as the workshops are being delivered online …
More details, and an email contact, from the website. 

Congratulations

To Maureen Sudlow who has been Commended in the Polish Haiku Contest (Poland).

To Sue Courtney who has won the Grand Prize in the Morioka Haiku Contest (Japan).

To Sundeia Lomberg, Sue Courtney and Jack Wood who all had haiku selected for the anthology of the Yamadera Basho Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest (Japan).

To Catherine Lagae who has received a Merit Award in the Ito-En Oi Ocha Haiku Contest (Japan).

Japan-theme events in NZ

Jan 23: Hello Japan Kids Festival, 10am-3pm, Ellen Melville Centre, Auckland CBD, free. Read more here.
Feb 15: Introduction to Taiko Drumming, noon-1.30pm, 32 Brooklyn Rd, Wellington, $15. Read more here.
Feb 15: Drum Struck, noon-4pm, Aotea Sq, Auckland, free. Read more here.
Feb 22: Japan Day, 10.30am-4.30pm, Auckland Showgrounds, free admission. Read more here.
March 21: Taranaki Japan Day, 11am-4pm, Bell Block Hall, near New Plymouth, $2 entry. Read more here.
To March 29: The Superlative Artistry of Japan, 10am-4pm, Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Upper Hutt. Read more here.

Under the Bashō Closes

Don Baird and Stephen Bailey, editors of Under the Bashō, have decided to cease seeking submissions, and have sent the following information.
All content published in Under the Bashō between 2013 and 2025 (except for 2021 post-Covid) has been converted to PDF files for archival and distribution. They will be offered for inclusion on THF‘s digital library and within the Living Haiku Anthology website. Under the Bashō haiku journal will be closed and the domain allowed to expire.
The Living Haiku Anthology and Living Senryu Anthology have been rehoused on another web-hosting package solution which will incur minimal costs for the lifetime of the sites apart from the periodic Domain Name Registrations costs for which some financial allowance has been made. Both The Living Haiku Anthology and the Living Senryu Anthology will continue to exist as resources with ongoing maintenance by Don and Stephen and any assistants that they can train.
“Please do not hesitate to download the Under the Bashō annual journal as PDFs as a record of so much wonderful contributions by haiku poets from around the world. Your own poems may be among them.”

NZPS Anthology

The 2025 NZ Poetry Society anthology, There Are Rabbits Here, may be ordered here.
Upcoming anthology launches
Ōtautahi Christchurch: January 25, 6pm, Te Wa, 74 Hawdon St, free.
Ōtepoti Dunedin: January 29, 6pm, downstairs at Moon’s Restaurant & Bar, 286 Princes St, free.
Tamaki Makaurau Auckland: February 1, 11am-noon, Studio One, 1 Ponsonby Rd, free.
Events are also planned for Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington and Kerikeri, details to come.

End Notes

January 2, 2026: I hope that your new year has started well and that amid the festivities you found somewhere just right to settle in with a book, a pad and pen (or phone) to record any haiku that may have floated your way. Updates are minimal this month as I have a bit of a break, so the monthly essay remains the same – Brad Bennett on ‘verbing’ in haiku – but the Contest listing has been updated. For those of us looking forward to, or enjoying, a summer break, have fun, stay safe, keep writing (and observing) and don’t forget to slip-slop-slap-wrap when you’re out in the sun. – Sandra

My very best wishes
to readers near and far
for a happy haiku 2026!