by Dave Russo on January 6, 2012
We are pleased to announce the start of our third annual HaikuNow! contest today! Prizes will be awarded for English-language haiku in three categories: traditional, contemporary and innovative. Please see the main HaikuNow! page for deadlines and other requirements.
Our two final judges are Jane Hirshfield and Jim Kacian. Many of you will know Jane from her poetry collections (After), her essays (Nine Gates, Entering the Mind of Poetry) and her translations (Ink Dark Moon, with Mariko Aratani). Haiku poets will be particularly interested in Jane’s Kindle Single called The Heart of Haiku. For months, this little book was Amazon’s highest-selling poetry book or poetry-related book in any format.
We look forward to receiving your poems!
by Dave Russo on August 20, 2011
Welcome to the spiffed-up web site of The Haiku Foundation!
Our main goal for the new design was make it easier for you to find our content–especially our haiku collections and discussion areas. We reorganized the main menu and added a site index in the footer on every page. We added a slider on the home page to call attention to special features, such as the THF Haiku app for Apple devices. Click the > symbol in the slider to display the next feature.
Behind the scenes, we upgraded to the latest version of WordPress software, and we replaced our original site templates with the Thesis framework. These technical changes should make our site more stable and secure for the future. And they will enable us to take advantage of new features such as the quotation widget in the Quick Takes section in the right side bar that you’ll see on many pages of the site.
Our new design is the product of many hands. The Board of Directors drafted the new design in response to suggestions and comments from you, our readers. We hired Chris Guth (www.thesistheme.net) to implement the design in Thesis and WordPress. We hired Rich Agnew (www.computer-geek.net)–who created the database software behind the Haiku Registry, the Contest Archive, and the Per Diem feature–to make these applications work with the new design. And yours truly coordinated the various contributors.
Of course, the new design wouldn’t matter if we didn’t have content and experiences to offer you.
Hats off to our Forum moderators: Alan Summers; Laura Sherman; Don Baird; Gael Bage; John McManus; Jim Kacian; David Lanoue; Peter Yovu; and Billie Wilson. We think our forum is one of the best places for haiku-related discussions on the web.
Thanks to Billie for managing the Haiku Registry and our Event Calendars; to Paul Miller for managing the Contest Archive; to Laura for coordinating our HaikuNow! contests; and to Mark Harris for managing the Touchstone Awards.
None of this would be possible without your contributions of time, money, and attention. I hope that we can find more ways to keep you engaged with The Haiku Foundation.
by Dave Russo on August 4, 2011
We’re happy to announce THF Haiku, The Haiku Foundation’s app for the Apple iPhone!
THF Haiku brings contemporary haiku to your mobile device with a shake of your hand—literally. Shake your phone or other mobile device and a new poem appears. The app is loaded with 365 haiku from poets around the globe, showing the range of topics and form characteristic of today’s haiku. Additional poem packets soon to be available.
Many thanks to our app developer, Luke Bradford. Some of you might recall Luke’s first haiku app, Haiku Time, a haiku generator that generated quite a few comments on our blog.
You can download THF Haiku from the App Store on your Apple device.
by Dave Russo on May 6, 2011
I’m posting this on behalf of Paul Miller, who created the Contest Archive.
Paul writes:
“English-language haiku has grown substantially over the last forty years, both in the number of poets, as well as in the number of haiku organizations. This healthy growth has been a boon for budding and established poets. Part of this growth has been in the number of haiku contests. However, if the community has a weakness, it is that it is run by volunteers, and as such historical records aren’t always kept, or passed from outgoing to incoming President, or from coordinator to coordinator, as well as they should.
Since preservation of English-language haiku is one of the goals of the Haiku Foundation, an archive of contest winning poems is a natural fit. The Haiku Foundation has worked with local and national haiku organizations to create this online database. The contest data will be updated continuously; however, in order to allow the sponsor organizations first notification to the public, there will be a delay before such winners are posted on the HF site. This is an ongoing project so new contests will be periodically added. Corrections and suggestions are welcomed and encouraged.
In the creation of this archive we have found the process of revisiting years of our history rewarding. We hope others do as well.”
Paul Miller
by Laura Sherman on April 21, 2011
The Haiku Foundation created the HaikuNow! contest in order to encourage writers to explore English-language haiku. This year’s contest drew participants from over 50 countries. We had 240 entries in the Innovative category, 303 entries in the Contemporary category and 315 in Traditional.
We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2011 HaikuNow! contests:
Indian summer
mother dyes her graying hair
the color of straw
—Tom Painting |
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the river freezes . . .
silence is also
an answer
—Francine Banwarth |
we turn turn our clocks ahead
—Christopher Patchel |
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Please see the HaikuNow! archive page for all the judges’ comments!
