Beverley George, former President of the Australian Haiku Society, offers her essay - entitled “Haiku and the Seasons”, also translated into Serbian by Sasa Vazic - for readers of “HaikuOz”.

Beverley’s piece was first published in the New South Wales Poets Union journal “Five Bells” 15 (1) in 2007-2008.

With both language versions posted in “Haiku Reality” vol. 11 no. 19 Winter 2014, Beverley George’s essay about seasonal elements in haiku can be accessed at the following pair of links:
http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/esejeng127.htm
http://haikureality.theartofhaiku.com/eseji156.htm

Posted by Rodney Williams at 05:05 PM | Permalink

Patricia Prime (editor, "Kokako", New Zealand) wishes to advise Australian haiku poets who are contributors to the haiku anthology “A Vast Sky” that copies of this collection are now available.

Below, contributing poets will find the text of a message sent by Bruce Ross (from the United States), giving details about how to go about obtaining a copy of “A Vast Sky”.

Please note, however, that the first print-run for "A Vast Sky" has already sold out, such that the anthology will be reprinted in mid-May.

Dear haiku poet,

"A Vast Sky" been published. As a contributor, you will receive a $5
discount. That would be US$ 10.95 plus postage.

If you are interested in a copy, send me your mailing address and I will
email you the total cost including postage.

If you have PayPal you can send the money to my email that way.
If not, you will have to send me a check in US dollars, or a money order or
bank draft in US dollars, made out to Bruce Ross, sent to:

Bruce Ross
PMB 127
499 Broadway
Bangor, ME 04401
USA

As soon as I receive your payment I will mail you a copy of the book.

Best wishes,

Bruce Ross

Posted by Rodney Williams at 10:28 PM | Permalink

Further congratulations go to leading Australian haiku poet, Ron C. Moss.

Having recently won the Heron’s Nest Readers’ Choice Award for 2014, Ron has just become one of three recipients of a Touchstone Distinguished Book Award for 2014, for “The Bone Carver” (published by Snapshot Press) – his new haiku collection that features a wide range of prize-winning poems.

Ron C. Moss also had a haiku shortlisted in the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems.

Details regarding this set of awards can be viewed at this link: http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/touchstone-awards-for-2014

Another Australian haiku poet - Jan Dobb - likewise received recognition in this same set of awards.

First published in New Zealand in "Kokako 21", the following haiku by Jan was short-listed in the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems:

suburban street . . .
side by side in a bookcase
the tight-shut tales

First published in "The Heron's Nest" XVII.4, Ron C. Moss had the following individual haiku short-listed in the Touchstone Awards:

old horses
days of endless rain
in their eyes

"HaikuOz" readers are reminded that copies of Ron C. Moss' award-winning book “The Bone Carver” can be ordered through emailing him at the following address: [email protected]

Posted by Rodney Williams at 09:50 PM | Permalink

Main guidelines for entering the 7th Yamadera Basho Haiku Contest include the following points.

The entry period commenced on April 1 – entries must be postmarked by Saturday, 6 June 2015.

Poets may submit either one or two haiku, previously unpublished. (Non-Japanese entrants are not required to provide a translation.)

No entry fee is payable.

While entries can also be submitted by post or fax (as shown in the full details provided below), entrants may email their poems to this address: [email protected]

Noboru Oba

7th Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum
English Haiku Contest – Full Guidelines for Submissions

1 Conditions for submission: Only unpublished English haiku poems are eligible for submission. Each applicant may 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 select haiku to be displayed in the Haiku Submission Collection. A second screening will determine prize winners from among these selected works. The judging panel will consist of Takehisa Iijima (President of the International Association of Japanese Studies, Professor Emeritus of Yamagata University), Noboru Oba (English Haiku Contest Executive Committee President, former President of the Yamagata Prefecture English Education Research Association), Joe Marinocoji (poet and critic), and Lisa Somers (translator, Yamagata University part-time instructor).
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 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 may be submitted as of April 1, 2015 and should be postmarked no later than Saturday, June 6, 2015.
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
 (0)23-695-2221 Fax: (0)23-695-2552 e-mail 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 19, 2015 at 1:30 p.m. Prize-winning haiku poems and the haiku submission collection will be displayed on the Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum website.

*Haiku submissions and applicant names may be printed in the Haiku Submission Collection, displayed on the museum website, and otherwise made public. To ensure easy understandability, any unintentional spelling mistakes found in haiku submissions will be corrected by museum staff.

Posted by Rodney Williams at 08:49 PM | Permalink

The Haiku Foundation has announced details for its inaugural EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaborative, a world-wide poem to be written on International Haiku Poetry Day, April 17, 2015.

http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2015/04/13/getting-closer/

The theme for this year’s collaboration is Light, in honor of 2015 being named the Year of Light by United Nations proclamation. On today’s Troutswirl (the blog of the Foundation) you will find further details on how the rolling poem works. On Wednesday we will announce the seed poem for the collaboration.

The inaugural EarthRise Rolling Haiku Collaboration begins at 12:01 A.M. at the International Date Line, and rolls throughout the day. You’ll find a “seed” haiku on the blog at that time, on this year’s theme: Light, in celebration of the International Year of Light. Add your poem(s), in response to the previous post, or start a new thread on the topic of light. Ideally we’d like you to do this at dawn wherever you are, but we’re flexible — do it when you can, and as often as you like.

The results will become a permanent archive on the THF site.

Be a part of it — celebrate International Haiku Poetry Day, April 17, 2015.

- Jim Kacian, The Haiku Foundation

Posted by Cynthia Rowe at 01:14 PM | Permalink

Five members attended the Bindii meeting at 12 noon on 11 April at the Box Factory in Regent St Adelaide. The speaker for the meeting, Karin Anderson, was unavoidably delayed, so it was decided to postpone her presentation on early Japanese poetry forms until our 6 June Meeting.
The group will launch their new anthology: Haiku Bindii Vol. 2: Willow Light at the Box Factory from 2 pm on Saturday 25 April. The Launch Speaker will be Rob Walker, who will also play his shakuhachi.

Readings by members from the book will follow and refreshments will be provided. It should be a delightful event. The book has already been printed and members were shown an example. It is 60 pages in length and contains haiku, haibun, haiga and tanka.
The meeting was spent in workshop of members’ tanka and haiku.

Next meeting: 6 June, at the Box Factory. Karin Anderson will discuss early forms of Japanese poetry.

Lynette Arden

http://haiku-bindii.blogspot.com.au/

Posted by Lynette Arden at 01:17 PM | Permalink

Submissions are invited towards the fifth edition of "Prospect" poetry journal, an issue that will focus specifically upon haiku and tanka by Australian poets with an emphasis on Australian themes.

To be produced by Peter Macrow’s Blue Giraffe Press, this special edition will see Beverley George act as guest editor.

Submissions can be emailed to [email protected] during the submission period, between 1 April – 31 May 2015.

Contributors may offer up to 10 haiku and/or 6 tanka.

Work submitted cannot have been published previously in print or electronic media and cannot be on offer elsewhere.

Blue Giraffe Press poetry journals seek to publish the best in contemporary Australian poetry.

Haiku and tanka submitted should have a clearly Australian content.

Along with new work, awarded poems from the second Blue Giraffe haiku competition (2014) will also feature in this upcoming edition of “Prospect”, likely to appear during August, 2015.

Copies of “Prospect” will cost $10 each.

These can be ordered from Peter Macrow, 6/16 Osborne Street, Sandy Bay TAS 7005.

Cheques should be made out to Peter Macrow.

Making payment with cash or by sending postage stamps from Australia Post to the appropriate value would also be welcome.

Posted by Rodney Williams at 02:08 PM | Permalink

Congratulations to David Terelinck (NSW) – writing in collaboration with Carol Judkins (California) – for gaining second place in an international rengay competition conducted by the Haiku Poets of Northern California.

The piece concerned is entitled “A Spill of Moonlight”.

This 2014 competition was judged by leading Australian haiku poets Beverley George and Ron C. Moss.

Their comments – along with the rengay itself – can be viewed at this link (just posted):

http://www.hpnc.org/past-contests/2014-rengay-contest-results-with-judges-comments

Posted by Rodney Williams at 01:36 PM | Permalink

The 13th Bowerbird Tanka Workshop – held at Pearl Beach (NSW) on 14 March 2015 – was attended by 19 delegates from Sydney, the Newcastle area, Canberra and Tamworth.

You can read a report of the programme and three appraisals of favourite tanka through accessing this link:

http://www.eucalypt.info/E-bowerbird.html

Beverley George

Posted by Rodney Williams at 09:06 AM | Permalink

The following items were posted on the HaikuOz website during March, 2015, and can be accessed at www.haikuoz.org:

A Hundred Gourds 4:2 released
Launch of “The Bone Carver” by Ron C. Moss
Patron of the Australian Haiku Society
Successes in Kusamakura Haiku Competition
Haibun and tanka prose sought by “KYSO Flash”
“Windfall 3” launch in Hobart, February 20th 2015
Red Kelpie Haiku Group Ginko & Meeting #3
FreeXpresSion Haiku Competition 2015 results
Launch of Haiku Bindii: Willow Light
The Urban Halcyon: A Contemporary Haiga/Shahai Journal
Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2015: Call for Entries

While we remain committed to sending a group email containing the above information to all AHS members – on the first day of each month – technical difficulties continue to be experienced on a website-based level with this circulation process. Apologies are extended to any members who have not been receiving such emailed notifications. Efforts continue to be made to rectify this problem.

Meanwhile, members of the Australian Haiku Society – and other readers of HaikuOz – are reminded that you are most welcome to submit items relevant to the haiku community, both here and overseas, especially in relation to:

• haiku competitions and opportunities for publication;
• news of success in haiku writing enjoyed by Australian haiku poets; and
• reports about meetings of haiku groups in various states/ territories across this country.

Best wishes,

Rodney Williams

Secretary
Australian Haiku Society
www.haikuoz.org
[email protected]

Posted by Rodney Williams at 06:48 AM | Permalink