English Haiku Contest – Guidelines for Submissions

1. Conditions for submission: Only unpublished English haiku poems are eligible for submission. Each applicant is allowed to submit up to two poems. A Japanese translation should be included with each poem when possible, but non-Japanese applicants are not required to attach a translation.

2. Judging: An initial screening will be conducted to select haiku to be displayed in the haiku submission collection. A second screening will determine the prize winners from among these selected works. The judging panel will consist of Takeshi Iijima (President of the International Association of Japanese Studies, Professor Emeritus of Yamagata University), Noboru Oba (JALT Yamagata chapter president, former President of the Yamagata Prefecture English Education Research Association), Jo Marinokōji (poet and critic), and Lisa Somers (Yamagata University part-time instructor, translator).

3. Divisions:
(1) Division One: college students, general public
(2) Division Two : junior high school students
(3) Division Three: high school students
(4) Division Four: non-Japanese

4. Application procedure:
Haiku submissions may be submitted by post, email, or fax. Applicants are also requested to give their division, name, age and sex (optional), and contact information (address, phone number, email address [if any]). Age, sex, and contact information will not be made public. Junior and senior high school students should include their school name and grade, and Japanese applicants are asked to give the phonetic reading of their name.

5. Participation fee: None

6. Deadline: Applications should be postmarked no later than Wednesday, June 5, 2013.

7. Submissions: Haiku submissions and inquiries may be sent by post, fax, or email to:

Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum 4223 Nanin Yamadera
Yamagata-shi, Yamagata-ken, 999-3301 JAPAN

Ph (0)23-695-2221 Fax: (0)23-695-2552
email address: [email protected]

8. Prizes: In each division, one grand prize and two distinguished work prizes will be awarded. Recipients will receive a certificate printed in both English and Japanese as well as an additional prize.

9. Announcement of judging results:
Prize winners will be notified by post or email and will be invited to attend the awards ceremony, which will be held on July 21, 2013 at 1:30 p.m. Prize-winning haiku poems will be displayed on the Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum website during the month of July, 2013. Haiku entries which pass the initial screening will appear in the Haiku Submission Collection. To ensure easy understandability, any unintentional spelling mistakes found in haiku submissions will be corrected by Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum staff.