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)
Ama Pearls Waka Contest (US)
Basho Memorial Haiku Contest (Japan)
Sanford Goldstein Tanka Contest (US)
TSA Tanka Prose Contest (US)
Morioka Haiku Contest (Japan)
Irish Haiku Society Contest
News & Events
Japan-theme events in NZ
March 12-14: Forbidden Love – the Tale of Oshichi, puppet show, Nelson Fringe Festival, $18. 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.
Congratulations
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 NedwZ. The Contest listing has been updated to the end of May and includes details of this year’s NZ Poetry Society Haiku Contest. – Sandra