HaikuNow! Contests
The Haiku Foundation created the HaikuNow! international contests to expand opportunities for writers of English-language haiku. Prizes will be awarded for English-language haiku in three categories: traditional, contemporary and innovative. Results will be announced during April, National Poetry Month in the U.S., on this web site. For past winners, see the HaikuNow! Archive.
The HaikuNow! Contests are closed for 2013. Good luck everyone!
Prizes
First-prize winners in each category will receive $100. Honorable mentions will receive $25. All winning poems will be featured on The Haiku Foundation web site and will be archived.
Judges
Peter Duppenthaler, final judge for the Traditional category, grew up in a small town in northern California, spent a year in Japan as an exchange student, and after graduation returned to Japan and has been teaching there ever since. He has studied, written, judged, and published haiku for some 30 years. He is former editor of the beautiful Cha-no-yu journal as well as many papers on ways to teach English in a foreign context. He says of his personal history with haiku:
Many of my early haiku were in the traditional three-line, 5-7-5 style. I still prefer a three-line, short-long-short style and this is the one that I have recommended to my haiku students during the past ten years or so. Personally, I have moved way from a strict syllable count to a word count of two or three words in the first and third lines and three or four words in the second line. I find that this is easier for my Japanese English-language students to understand. Nevertheless, I still appreciate the extra work that 5-7-5 requires and am always struck when one really hits the mark – not easy but very rewarding.
Jim Kacian is the final judge for haiku in the Contemporary and Innovative categories. He is the founder of The Haiku Foundation and the author of 15 books of haiku. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Kacian for additional information.
Deadlines
Contest opens: January 16, 2013.
Deadline for submission: In hand by March 31, 2013.
Contest results: Winners will be announced during National Poetry Month, April 2012, on The Haiku Foundation web site www.thehaikufoundation.org.
Who can enter: Anyone (other than Officers, Associates and Board Members of The Haiku Foundation, and their immediate families) may enter.
Fees: None. Free for all contestants.
Submission Guidelines
All submitted haiku must be in English and must meet the criteria for the appropriate category, as described on the pages for each category. All poems must be the original, unpublished work of the submitter.
Each person can submit no more than one unpublished haiku per category: one traditional haiku, one contemporary haiku, and/or one innovative haiku—a maximum of three haiku per person.
Publication is defined as an appearance in a printed book, magazine, or journal (sold or given away), or in any online journal that presents edited periodic content. The appearance of poems in online discussion lists or personal Web sites is not considered publication.
To access the criteria and entry forms for each contest, click the links below:
