Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
Shiki and his Garden
by Sandra Simpson
New Contests
Check out the latest contests
Publications
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News & Events
National Poetry Day NZ
August 28 marks National Poetry Day in Aotearoa New Zealand. The website, which will include a calendar of events and a competition listing, is here.
Journal news/Submissions
1. Fresh Words magazine is seeking 3-line haiku for its Rain and Roots: A Nature & Earth Haiku Anthology. Limit 7 haiku.
Closes: August 15. Full details from the website. (Click on the title.)
2. Confluence Summer* Postcard Project … Sign up by August 15. By August 31, you will have your partner’s mailing address. By September 15, post your partner a postcard containing a Japanese short-form poem/haibun. (*Yes, we know it is winter in the southern hemisphere. We hope lots of you south of the equator will take part in this fun project too.)
3. The annual Fujisan Tanka Contest, which usually closes in September, is on hiatus this year. Organisers hope to restructure it and resume. More news anon.
Japan-theme events in NZ
To August 30: Futatsu no Sekai / Two Worlds by Robin White and Taeko Ogawa, Waiheke Island Community Art Gallery. Read more here. Dame Robin’s artwork, summer grass, is partly a response to Basho’s haiku. Read more here.
September 13: Japanese Calligraphy with Akiko Crowther, 1.30-3pm, Nelson Public Library, free but booking essential. Read more here.
Congratulations
To the Kiwis who featured in the NZPS Haiku Contest results: Sue Courtney (HC, C x2), Nola Borrell (HC, C x2). The winner, Wanda Amos, is resident in Australia but was born in New Zealand, while fifth-placed Owen Bullock, also now of Australia, was a long-time resident in Aotearoa. And to all the Junior Haiku Contest winners! See the links to the winning poems below.
To Jenny Fraser who has received an Honourable Mention in the Confluence Poetry Prize (US).
To Jessica Whitehead, who received the Young Poet Award in the Maya Lyubenova Haiku Contest (Bulgaria), and Claire Zhao, who was awarded the Osaka Governor’s Award in the Star Haiku Contest (Japan). Both poets are students at St Andrew’s College, Christchurch.
New Books
Owen Bullock has a new collection of haiku, the scuppered lily. Ordering details here.
Late Harvest is a new collection by Australian poet Mark Miller. Ordering details here.
Irish haiku poet Maeve O’Sullivan has a new collection, Wishing Tree Note. Ordering details here.
Haiku 2026 comprises 100 haiku from 2025 selected by the editors of the award-winning Haiku 21, Lee Gurga and Scott Metz. Ordering details here.
A Picnic Sky gathers selected haiku from Haiku Girl Summer 2023-2025 and appears in both paperback and e-reader editions. Ordering details here.
Red Moon Press keeps pumping out collections by individual authors, the latest being True North by Angela Terry. See the catalogue here.
Contest Results
Harold G Henderson Award (US)
HSA Haibun Award (US)
Japan Fair Haiku Contest (US)
HSA Senryu Award (US)
confluence prize (US)
Kaji Aso Haiku Contest (US)
Peggy Willis Lyles Award (US)
Robert Spiess Haiku Contest (US)
Solitary Daisy Haiku Contest (Canada)
Marlene Mountain Contest (US)
NZPS Junior Haiku Contest (NZ)
Magic of Maples Haiku Contest (UK)
NZPS Haiku Contest (NZ)
Betty Drevniok Haiku Award (Canada)
Maya Lyubenova Haiku Contest (Bulgaria)
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.
End Notes
August 1, 2026: I spent about 20 minutes this morning when I should have been updating this site watching a flock of sparrows land, fly and resettle in the bare branches of a couple of small maples in my backyard. Great fun! But the updates have been done and contest listings now run through to the end of October, while this month’s article is by yours truly and is all about Shiki and his garden, based on a presentation I made at last year’s Haiku North America in San Francisco. Hope you enjoy it. Don’t miss the opportunities listed above under ‘Journal news/Submissions’, always good to try something new. – Sandra
Events
2026
August 14-16: Cradle of American Haiku Festival, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, USA. Read more here.
October 22-25: Seabeck Getaway, Haiku Northwest, Washington State, USA. Guest speaker: Susan Antolin. Read more here.
2027
Haiku North America: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.