Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
‘Verbing’ in Haiku
by Brad Bennett
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
Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (US)
Kusamakura Haiku Contest (Japan)
Polish Haiku Contest (Poland)
Porad Haiku Contest (US)
Triveni Haiku Awards (India)
WHJ Summer Contest (Wales)
Ama Pearls Waka Contest (US)
Basho Memorial Haiku Contest (Japan)
Sanford Goldstein Tanka Contest (US)
TSA Tanka Prose Contest (US)
Japan Fair Haiku Contest (US)
Morioka Haiku Contest (Japan)
News & Events
Under the Bashō Closes
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
Dec 20-March: The Superlative Artistry of Japan, 10am-4pm, Whirinaki Whare Taonga, Upper Hutt. Read more here.
Feb 22: Japan Day, 10.30am-4.30pm, Auckland Showgrounds, free admission. Read more here.
NZPS Anthology
The 2025 NZ Poetry Society anthology, There Are Rabbits Here, may be ordered here.
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