Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
The Practical Art of Record Keeping
by Robert Epstein
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
HPNC Haiku, Senryu, Tanka & Haibun (US)
Kusamakura Haiku Contest (Japan)
Polish Haiku Contest (Poland)
Matsuyama Inspires Photo Haiku Contest (Japan)
Triveni Haiku Awards (India)
WHJ Summer Contest (Wales)
Basho-an Haiku Contest (Japan)
Ama Pearls Waka Contest (US)
Basho Memorial Haiku Contest (Japan)
Golden Triangle Haiku Contest (US)
Sanford Goldstein Tanka Contest (US)
TSA Tanka Prose Contest (US)
Morioka Haiku Contest (Japan)
Irish Haiku Society Contest
News & Events
Free online haiku workshop
As part of the Virtual Japan Fair Haiku Contest, Michael Dylan Welch is running a free online workshop for all ages and stages.
May 14, 6-8pm (US Pacific time) = May 15, 1-3pm NZ time (but please check my conversion!). Full details from the website.
New Books
Turtle Dreams is the latest Red Moon Press anthology of 2025 English-language haiku and related forms, the 30th in the annual series! This one features 165 poems, 23 linked forms and six essays. Read more here.
Griots: Keepers of the Story is a collection of haibun by five African-American writers. Read more here.
Japan-theme events in NZ
To March 29: The Superlative Artistry of Japan, 10am-4pm, Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Upper Hutt. Read more here.
April 18-July 11: Currents Calling Home: Ai Iwane & Mānawatia te Wai, Hastings Art Gallery. Read more here.
May 15: Japanese novelist Mieko Kawakami in conversation, 7-8pm, Aotea Centre, Auckland, $25/$30. Read more here.
Journal News
Online journal tsuri-dōrō, which until now has been published every 2 months, is to become quarterly from July 1. The next submission period is April 1-10.
Wales Haiku Journal has started a free Haiku Emporium on its website, a collection of words that is regularly added to and changed that is intended to act as inspiration for poets.
Congratulations
To Barbara Strang, Sandra Simpson and Sue Courtney who each have a haiku on a signboard in the Golden Triangle area of Washington DC.
To Anne Curran and Pip Sheehan who were each among the 10 winners chosen by judges Dhugal Lindsay and Naoko Fujita respectively, in the Basho-an Haiku Contest (Japan).
To Sue Courtney, Peter Free and Sandra Simpson who all have work in turtle dreams, the Red Moon anthology of 2025 English-language haiku.
To Stephen Norton who has received a Third Prize in the Kusamakura Haiku Contest (Japan).
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).
End Notes
February 28, 2026: More destructive storms in February, who would have thought? As ‘summer’ draws to a close, I wonder what autumn might have in store? Hopefully, a period of calm and fruitful mellowness. This month’s article is a good one for the start of the year (I don’t count January as a month any more, and February is so short …) as it explores – and encourages – the good habit of record keeping for poets. Robert has kindly written it especially for us at Haiku NewZ. The Contest listing has been updated to thebeginning of June, and includes details of this year’s NZ Poetry Society Haiku Contest. – Sandra