Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
Some Notes on Writing Haiku
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
Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest Results (US)
Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (US)
Fleeting Words Tanka Contest (US)
San Francisco Haibun Contest (US)
International EJCA Spring Haiku Contest (Canada)
Henderson Haiku Award (US)
Sonic Boom Visual Poetry Contest (India)
HSA Haibun Award (US)
HSA Garry Gay Rengay Award (US)
Brady Senryu Award (US)
Star Haiku Contest (Japan)
News & Events
Haiku on NZ Radio
Sherry Grant is seeking up to 3 published haiku from New Zealand poets for broadcast on her weekly radio show. Sherry began broadcasting in July with regular live readings of music, poetry, philosophy, and other literary works. She aims to bring back the nostalgia and excitement of live radio broadcast and bring listeners hope through the beauty of the selected works. Find the streaming link here and the programme schedule here.
Submit: Up to 3 published haiku with first publication credits to Sherry by email.
Anti-War Anthology
Dimitar Anakiev is seeking haiku, tanka, renku, haibun, etc (published and unpublished) for an anthology of anti-war poems. Apparently, any money raised will go to “the people of Ukraine”.
Submit: By September 30. More details here (scroll down).
Wee Sparrow
Haiku Nook
A new online venture that will see 5 haiku published each month.
Submit: Up to 3 haiku between the 1st and 15th of each month. Full details from the website.
Holiday Food Poems
Allyson Whipple, editor of The Culinary Sajiki, is seeking haiku and senryu related to holiday food, including its preparation, for an anthology. Submissions accepted on a rolling basis.
Read more here.
Member Monday
Marion Moxham and her daughter Catherine Moxham are among the first poets featured on the NZPS Instagram feature, Member Monday, followed on September 2 by the third generation, Leika McIver. See Marion. See Leika.
a fine line
The NZPS magazine wants haiku for its spring issue, which may be on the theme ‘light / rama’. Submissions from non-members welcome (fee payable).
Submit: Up to 4 haiku by September 10.
Full details here.
Rengay Online Event
September 15, 9-11am (NZT), guest speaker John Pappas. Please register by email. Hosted by Sherry + Zoe Grant.
Cherry blossom in NZ
Aotearoa celebrates spring blossoms with a few special events:
Sept 7-Oct 6 Cherry Blossom Viewing, Aston Norwood Gardens, near Wellington. Entry fee.
Sept 7-9 Tulip Festival, 9am-3pm, Eden Garden, Auckland. Entry fee.
Sept 21 Greerton Spring Fling, 9am-2pm, Tauranga, incorporating the Cherry Blossom Festival.
Sept 21 Hastings Blossom Festival.
Sept 27-29 Alexandra Blossom Festival.
Rattle honours haibun
Rattle journal will dedicate its (northern) spring 2025 issue to haibun.
Submit: Up to 4 poems by October 16.
Read more here.
Congratulations
To Peter Free who has received an Honourable Mention in the Hexapod Haiku Challenge (US). See all the winning poems here.
To Helen Hobbs who has received a Highly Commended in the Haiku Down Under Contest (Australia). See all the winning poems here.
To Sandra Simpson who has been placed Third in the Marlene Mountain Haiku Contest (US).
To Anne Curran who has received an Award for Overall Performance in the International Haiku Contest (Bulgaria). See all the winning poems here.
To Sandra Simpson who has been placed First in the Japan Fair Haiku Contest (US). See all the results here.
Vale Deborah P Kolodji
Deborah P Kolodji, haiku poet and co-organiser of the 2013 Haiku North America in Long Beach, California, died on July 20. She chronicled her illness in her most recent book ‘Vital Signs’ (Cuttlefish Books, 2024). Her books are available to purchase on Amazon. Read about Deborah’s life and a sample of her work on The Haiku Foundation’s Haiku Registry. Since 2016 she had been on the board of directors for HNA.
End Notes
August 31, 2024: What a grand time was had at Haiku Down Under, bittersweet at the wrap-up though, with the current organising team not committing to a third iteration. With more than 160 people from all around the world attending during the course of the free, online gathering over the weekend of August 16-18, it would seem that there’s an appetite for a down under-focused event – our voices, our vernacular, our keywords. Sue Courtney, the lone Kiwi on the organising team, was thrilled that 42 people from Aotearoa had attended. Between us, we have come up with some new names who are keen on haiku and who we are very pleased to welcome to the New Zealand haiku community and Haiku NewZ. Gatherings such as Haiku Down Under nurture that feeling of being part of a cohesive whole and support ongoing eduaction, so well done to the team! – Sandra