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.
Please Note: We have closed entries for the 2012 contest.
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
Jane Hirshfield is the final judge for haiku in the Traditional category. Jane was born in New York City and received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in the school’s first graduating class to include women. She later studied at the San Francisco Zen Center, including three years of monastic practice at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center . She received lay ordination in Soto Zen in 1979. Her six books of poetry have each received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and her sixth collection, After, was a finalist for England’s T.S. Eliot Award and named a “best book of 2006″ by The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle , and England’s Financial Times. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, the Los Angeles Times, the Times Literary Supplement, many literary journals, and multiple volumes of The Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. Her poems have frequently been read on various National Public Radio programs, and she was featured in two Bill Moyers PBS television specials, The Sounds of Poetry and Fooling With Words. See her Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Hirshfield for more details.
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 6, 2012.
Deadline for submission: In hand by March 31, 2012.
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:
