Haiku Happenings
This Month’s Article
Check out this month’s article:
Repetition in 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
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational (Canada)
Fujisan Tanka Contest (Japan)
HPNC (US)
IHS Contest (Ireland)
Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest (Japan)
Snapshot Press eChapbook Award (UK)
Polish Haiku Contest (Poland)
HIA Contest (Japan)
News & Events
NaHaiWriMo
February is the time to get involved with the fun and free challenge to write a haiku a day for the whole month (the shortest month).
Full details from the website.
Haiku North America 2025
The biennial conference will take place in San Francisco in late September. Registrations have opened and proposal submissions are open until March 31.
Full details from the website.
Eccentric Orbits anthology
“We are looking for all forms of poetry that deal with speculative subjects. Science fiction, fantasy, or horror … in the case of speculative haiku, I ask that you group your ku in sets of 3 or 4 poems on a given speculative theme.”
Submit: April 30.
Full details from the website.
Double Horizons anthology
Haiku poets who have published at least one collection of haiku in either English or French to contribute to a new English- and French-language anthology of contemporary haiku, Double Horizons, due to be published in December 2025. The project is the brainchild of the Association Francophone de Haïku and the journals l’estran and seashores.
Submit: By April 30. Full details can be found here.
The Abstractaphy Initiative
This project is aimed at raising awareness of global concerns through poetry, prose and art, including all the Japanese forms.
Submit: At any time.
Full details from the website.
Congratulations
To Kirsten Cliff Elliot, who has been placed First in the Haiku for a Fossil Fuel Treaty (paperboats contest, Scotland) and a Highly Commended in the contest’s other category, Haiku for a Rewilding Nation. See all the winning poems here.
To Peter Free who has received an HM in the Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest (US). See the winners’ names here.
Sensory Journey anthology
A Sensory Journey is the anthology from last year’s Haiku Down Under online gathering with the poems either written during workshops or break times or inspired during the weekend. The balance of the print run is now on general sale, with 10 copies in New Zealand so saving on postage costs for Kiwis (the rest are in Australia). There are various options available so please contact Carole Harrison (Australia) or Sue Courtney (NZ) for more information. See a small sampler of poems here.
Some changes
The ukiaHaiku Festival Contest normally takes place in March, but won’t have an international section (the Jane Reichhold Prize) in 2025 due to a lack of volunteers on the festival committee.
The Horror senryu journal is going on hiatus from February 1. Read the journal here.
Eastern Structures
A print journal from Canada, Eastern Structures is looking for 5-7-5 haiku and 5-7-5-7-7 tanka, as well as ghazal and sijo. It appears to be published twice a year.
Submit: At any time.
A few more details from the website.
End Notes
January 31, 2025: A whole month gone by already! I hope that you’ve had the chance to recharge, regroup and write a little over the summer break, even if it’s just notes for future poems.
The end of January was also the start of a new year in the 12-year-cycle of the Chinese Lunar Calendar so welcome to the Year of the Snake! People born under this sign are believed to be insightful, graceful and resourceful, and are also known for their vigilance, caution and rationality, making them adept at handling complex situations and pursuing creative endeavours. Read more here. – Sandra
HAIKU EVENTS 2025
Feb 1-28 NaHaiWriMo, online. Read more here.
Feb 21-23 The Way of Haiku, online (USA time). Read more here. Also run in-person on the same dates.
April 17 International Haiku Poetry Day
Sept 24-28 Haiku North America, San Francisco, USA. Read more here.
Oct 23-26 Seabeck Haiku Getaway, Washington State, USA. Read more here.