ANTHOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL HAIKU ABOUT WAR, HUMAN RIGHT VIOLENCE & DISCRIMINATION
Edited by: Dimitar Anakiev

Number of haiku: not limited.

Both published (the source of the first publication not obligatory) and unpublished.

Accompanied by English translation.

Please include your name, age, address and nationality.

Deadline: ASAP, but no latter than May 15, 2009.

Send to: [email protected] with the subject "Antologija".

Posted by Graham Nunn at 09:46 PM | Permalink

The Mainichi Newspapers is inviting participation in the 13th annual Mainichi Haiku Contest. We look forward to receiving original Japanese, English or French entries that will help add a touch of inspiration to the world of haiku.
Judges for the contest are haiku experts Akito Arima, Kiyoko Uda, Akira Ogushi, Akira Omine, Keisyu Ogawa, Yuko Kagiwada, Tota Kaneko, Kobun Kurata, Momoko Kuroda, Toru Haga, Kai Hasegawa, Naoto Hirose. Toru Haga, an internationally renowned expert on comparative literature, will judge international section entries.

The Mainichi Haiku Contest consists of three Sections:

1. General Section (for haiku in Japanese)
2. Children's Section (for haiku composed by those of junior high school age and under)
3. International Section (for haiku composed in English or French)

Applications are easy and can be posted or made over the Internet through the online form provided below. For the blind, applications can also be submitted in Braille.

Entries must be original haiku and must not have been published or submitted anywhere else. Double submissions will not be accepted. The release and publishing copyrights of any of the entries that are published in subsequent haiku collections will remain with the Mainichi Newspapers.

Those taking part in the International Section can submit a maximum of two haiku.

International Section entries, Children's Section entries, and entries in Braille are free. Refer to the notes below for details on the cost of entering the General Section.

Together with your haiku, please include your name, age, address, telephone number, and the name of any haiku organization to which you belong. Also indicate which Section you are applying for.

To apply over the Internet, simply fill out the online entry form: https://form.mainichi.jp/book/HaikuContest/english.html

(Note: Please use this provided form to submit entries online. E-mails sent directly to the Mainichi Haiku Contest Office will not be accepted.)

In the International Section, the Children's Section, and the organization and school categories, certificates of merit and mementos will be awarded. Please note that no monetary prizes will be awarded in any of these Sections or categories.

Results for the winners of the International Section will be announced on the Mainichi Daily News Web site: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/haiku/ in January 2010.

Other winners will be announced in the Mainichi Shimbun and Mainichi haiku publications, in January 2010.

The deadline for online entries is August 31, 2009

Entries in the general section cost 2,000 yen for each pair of haiku. Money for general section entries should be sent by postal transfer to the Mainichi Haiku Taisho Jimukyoku (Mainichi haiku contest head office), account No. 00140-0-404438.

Supporters
Among the supporters of the contest are the Modern Haiku Association, the Association of Haiku Poets, the Association of Japanese Classical Haiku, the Japan Children's Haiku Association, the Haiku International Association, the National Committee for the Welfare of the Blind in Japan, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Posted by Graham Nunn at 09:42 PM | Permalink

A new Montage gallery : "Antipodes," in honor of Anzac Day (April 25th), features haiku from "Down Under" by Janice Bostok, Ernest J. Berry, and Ron Moss.

http://www.redmoonpress.com/montage.html

Posted by Beverley George at 10:54 AM | Permalink

Notes From the Gean: a journal of Japanese short forms

Gean: the wild cherry, Prunus avium. [French guigne]
Press Release and call for Submissions:

We are pleased to announce ‘Notes From the Gean’, a new journal specialising in Japanese short forms. The inaugural issue is due out on June 1st 2009. You can find us at http://www.geantree.webs.com/

We welcome your submissions of up to 10 original haiku and/or senryu.

Submissions of up to 5 tanka

Haiga (modern or traditional) will be considered.

Renga, haibun, and sequences will not be considered at this time, although we do enjoy reading and writing these various forms and/or genre, here at Gean Tree Press.
All poems/artwork submitted to Notes From the Gean must be unpublished, either in print or electronically, and not under consideration elsewhere. Haiku that have been uploaded to sharing networks or blogs will be deemed as published and those that are work-shopped on closed forums will be considered as unpublished.

Submissions are open now and will close two weeks prior to publication

Haiku Editor : Lorin Ford, Australia
Tanka Editor : H. Gene Murtha, United States
Haiga Editor : Origa, United States
Photographic Consultant : Grum Robertson, United Kingdom
Managing Editor : Colin Stewart Jones, United Kingdom

We will do our utmost to ensure a speedy response to all submissions.

We, the Editors at Gean Tree Press, seek to encourage excellence, experimentation and education within the haiku community. We believe this is best accomplished by example and not imitation. Our aim is for originality above all else. We therefore solicit your finest examples of Japanese short form poetry and hope to “hear” your voices speak.

Posted by Beverley George at 05:57 PM | Permalink

Closing Date: Friday 1st. May 2009

Categories: Prizes: 1st 2nd
A - Tanka $100 $50
page of 2 Tanka = 1 entry
B - Tanka Sequence $100 $50
3 - 8 tanka, 1 sequence = 1 entry

Entry Fee: AUS $5.00 per entry
Cheque or money order payable to “Friendly Street Poets”.

Send entries to:
Friendly Street Poets Inc, PO Box 3697, Norwood, 5067.
Please note: entries will only be accepted via this post box.

Tanka:
This is a 5 line poem of 31 syllables or fewer. Tanka is not a haiku with extra lines. 1300 years ago, lyrical tanka celebrated courtly love. Contemporary tanka address human emotions and aspects of life; not all of them incorporate nature. The first line is used in place of a title for reference.

Tanka Sequence:
For the purposes of this competition, the sequence will comprise 3 to 8 tanka on a chosen theme or narrative. Each tanka must be capable of standing alone, and the connection between tanka can be more subtle than the links between verses in Western poetry. Sequences have titles.

Conditions and Guidelines:
1. Entries must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished, not have won a monetary prize, or be under consideration elsewhere.
2. All submissions must be sent to the Friendly Street post box.
3. Entries must be received by the due date, or postmarked by that date.
4. An entry form, or a photocopy of this form, is required.
5. Author’s name is not to appear on the entries, only on this entry form.
6. There is no limit to the number of entries. All entries must be listed on the entry form and the appropriate fee must be enclosed.
7. Two copies of each entry must accompany the form and fee.
8. Please keep a copy of your work as entries will be destroyed after the judging.
9. Authors retain copyright, but Friendly Street Poets Inc. claim the right (if we choose) to publish winning and commended entries on the website and in Friendly Street Publications.
10. Prizes are based on literary merit. Judges’ rulings are final and no correspondence will be entered into. Prizes are in Australian dollars.
11. Notification of winners will be announced at the Friendly Street meeting in June and posted on the website.

Download an entry form at: http://friendlystreetpoets.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/tanka-form.pdf

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:46 AM | Permalink

Between October, 2008 and March, 2009 HaikuOz published 74 responses by 71 poets (57 Australian) to the question, What is haiku?. These numbers reflect our enduring fascination with the nature of this haiku thing. Rich pickings are there to be had. Perhaps our scholars will be encouraged to persevere with discovering the aesthetic(s) of English-language haiku?

Responses ranged from formal, descriptive definitions to abstract expressions. I found the latter at least equally interesting and instructive. I won’t try to paraphrase them – it’s best they be (re)read in the authors’ own words.

But looking to the definitive answers, some analysis is possible. The near-universal view was that a haiku is a poem whose most distinguishing feature is brevity.

It seems we insist that our haiku is poetry despite daily-published ‘haiku’ that might persuade others to a contrary view. Is it that we don’t wish to be known as writers of anything less than poetry? I wonder if this mind-set encourages a striving for ‘depth’ or ‘intellectual significance’ or ‘semantic complexity’ that might make an older Bashõ uncomfortable. What happens to haiku when stressed to measure up to its bigger cousins?

Brevity. We are agreed the haiku is: small, short, concise, a snapshot, brief as a synaptic flash, a molecule of poetry, an atom! Nobody suggested that it should, like its Japanese parent, have a minimum length.

The next most common tenets were that haiku addressed a ‘moment’, produced an insight and were usually about nature. In these and other respects our responses were broadly in step with those identified in serious studies such as the excellent one by Max Verhart. (1)

Again there is disparity between responses and what one sees routinely published as haiku. A kind reading of this is that respondents chose to answer the quite different question: what could or should haiku be? If so then the answers might better be taken as ‘aspirational statements’ rather than as definitions or descriptions of what haiku is.

The best surprise for me was that ‘how to write haiku’ dictums did not overwhelm statements about ‘what haiku is.’ How encouraging that haiku is seen as something more than the current fashion for writing it.

As a summary, we could say we think of haiku as: ‘a brief poem that conjures an insight from a moment that involves nature.’ But let’s not.

The objective was not to arrive at a consensus definition but to better appreciate how our peers see haiku. In this respect I have gained a much better understanding of, and hopefully more tolerance to, others’ viewpoints. I hope everybody had as much fun as I did. Thanks to all who took part.

John Bird, for 6th April, 2009
AHS Definitions Project.

Note (1) . “The Essence of Haiku as Perceived by Western Haijin” by Max Verhart, reproduced from Modern Haiku, Volume 38.2, Summer 2007, at:
http://www.modernhaiku.org/essays/VerhartEssentialHaiku.html

Posted by Graham Nunn at 06:29 PM | Permalink

to read a moving tanka sequence about Gaza by Anne Benjamin
please visit
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=11494

Posted by Beverley George at 11:51 AM | Permalink

Closing date: October 31
First Prize
NZ$200

2 Runners-up prizes NZ$50 each

Judge:

Karen Peterson-Butterworth

Send entries to:

The Kokako Haiku Competition
Patricia Prime, co-editor
42 Flanshaw Road
Te Atatu South
Auckland 8
New Zealand

Please make cheques out to Kokako
Overseas entrants may send cash at their own risk

Conditions of entry:

1.Haiku must be previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere.
2.Entry fee is NZ$5 for every 3 haiku; for overseas entries, US$1 per haiku.
3.Send two copies of each haiku, or group of haiku, with your name and address on one copy only.
4.Winning haiku and commended entries will be published in Kokako12 (April 2010).
5.Winners will be notified by mail.
6.Any theme is acceptable.

Any queries, email: [email protected]

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:06 PM | Permalink

Members of The SA Haiku Group held their autumn meeting on 4 April 2009 at the SA Writers’ Centre. This was the first meeting of the group at their indoor location, as previous meetings had taken the ginko format and been held in public parks in Adelaide.

The group decided to take full advantage of the indoor facilities by having a workshop session. Each member in turn wrote a haiku on the whiteboard for comment. The resulting discussion was both interesting and lively. Afterwards, members of the group said they had gained a deeper knowledge of the form, as well as an appreciation of the variety of the work members had presented.

Following the meeting, those who were able to stay had lunch together in the café downstairs.

Lynette Arden

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:04 PM | Permalink

Deadline. 1^st July, 2009

Background. Writing haiku that are relevant to, and understood by everybody, everywhere, can lead us from the ‘here and now’ into a Haikuland where we forgo connection to our real world. Haiku Dreaming Australia was formed to encourage Australian poets to locate their haiku where they live, and this competition is part of that effort. [See [3]Homogenous Haiku for amplification.]

The Haiku Dreaming Australia Awards is an international competition for haiku which are relevant in and to Australia.
We are not necessarily looking for haiku about kangaroos, wattle or other things exclusive to Australia. On the other hand please remember we are looking for poems to publish in the Dreaming Collection. Thus those that resonate with Australians might be received more sympathetically than those dealing with moose,
Dolls Festival, The Thames, and snow at Christmas. Haiku already published in [4]The Dreaming Collection are a good guide to what judges will consider relevant.

Eligibility. Everybody except competition judges and secretary/editor.
Prizes. Three monetary prizes: 1^st AU$200; 2^nd AU$100; 3^rd AU$50
The prize-winning haiku plus those awarded Honorable Mentions, as recommended by the Judges and approved by the Dreaming Editor, will be published in the Dreaming Collection for a minimum of three months, perhaps as long as forever Entry Fee. None.

Dreaming Australia Awards – Entry Procedure

Send up to three haiku, written in English, within the body of one email to: [5][email protected]
By entering this competition you affirm that you hold copyright over the entries, that they are unpublished and will not be offered for publication elsewhere prior to 30^th September, 2009, and you grant the Editor of Dreaming the one-time right to publish your haiku in the Dreaming Collection.

Judging
There will be four judges. Only the Competition Secretary will know the identity of authors and judges prior to announcement of the results.

Results. Authors of prize-winning and honourably mentioned haiku will be advised by email and a copy of the results will be posted on the Dreaming website by 25th September 2009. All other haiku are released for submission or publication elsewhere with effect from 30^th September, 2009.

John Bird
Dreaming Editor / Competition Secretary
[6][email protected] / [7][email protected]

Posted by Graham Nunn at 08:01 PM | Permalink

Janice M. Bostok's article Must Haibun Contain A Haiku? is the article of the month on the New Zealand Poetry Society website. You can read the article here: http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/monthlyarticle

Posted by Graham Nunn at 05:06 PM | Permalink

The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce the March 2009 issue of World Haiku Review. It can be accessed at:
http://worldhaikureview.googlepages.com/home

Click on this URL and when the magazine's home page comes up click on the current issue link indicated as Volume 7 Issue 1, March 2009. If you wish to go directly to the new issue, visit:
http://worldhaikureview.googlepages.com/worldhaikureview5

Call for submissions will be found on the 'Submissions Guidelines' there, or visit: http://worldhaikureview.googlepages.com/aboutworldhaikureview

We are planning the next issue to be published around July/August 2009 (the publication date has not yet been decided) which will continue to focus mainly on haiku. So, please start sending in your finest works.

Posted by Graham Nunn at 05:04 PM | Permalink

Visit the site:

http://www.geocities.com/ana_vazic/indexeng.htm

Contents:

Haiku Contests
Essays, Criticisms, Analyses, Interviews...
James W. Hackett: “Haiku” and “Haiku Poetry”
H.F. Noyes: The Vanishing Act in Haiku
D. Anakiev: Unknown Mind in Haiku
John Martone: The Way of Poetry

Haiku Gallery:

Marc di Saverio
Ljiljana Đuričić
an'ya
Ljudmila Milena Mršić
Đurđa Vukelić-Rožić
Ed Baker
Max Verhart

Book Reviews:

Vesna Oborina, Zvuci tišine (Sounds of Silence): Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički
Constantin Stroe, Casa Bunicii (Grandma's House): Vasile Moldovan
Ban'ya Natsuishi, The Flying Pope: Robert D. Wilson
Ion Marinescu, The Return of the Crane: Magdalena Dale
Robert D. Wilson, Jack Fruit Moon: Linda Papanicolaou
Lenka Jakšić, Akordi mirisa (Chords of Scents): Milenko D. Ćirović Ljutički
Robert D. Wilson, Jack Fruit Moon: Saša Važić
Carole MacRury, In the Company of Crows, Johnye Strickland

Selected Haiku:

Best haiku of the issue (selectors: an'ya and Jasminka Nadaškić-Đorđević)

YOUR FURTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO HAIKU REALITY ARE MOST WELCOME!
THANK YOU!
Saša Važić, editor

Posted by Graham Nunn at 05:01 PM | Permalink