The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems will be bestowed annually on haiku and senryu that represent a noteworthy addition to English-language haiku in the estimation of a distinguished panel of haiku poets, editors and scholars. The inaugural Awards are open to any English-language haiku or senryu published in calendar-year 2010. Each author of an award-winning poem will receive a commemorative stone with their poem and name engraved on it, emblematic of his or her contribution to the foundations of English-language haiku.

Any individual who had at least one haiku or senryu published during the award year may nominate two haiku or senryu, one of which may be their own, published during that year. For the purposes of this award, publication is constituted by, but not limited to, first appearance in a juried public venue such as a book, journal, online site or contest. The Awards Committee reserves the right to determine whether a poem meets this criterion.

The panel for our inaugural awards consists of Fay Aoyagi, David Cobb, Janice Bostok, john martone, Hiro Sato and John Stevenson.

The deadline for submission is December 31, 2010. Please see full guidelines at:

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/awards/touchstone-poem-awards/