Langhorne Creek Writers’ Festival: Young people’s Haiku Competition 2015
Bindii Japanese Genres Poetry Group sponsored the four prizes awarded in this first year of the haiku competition. Ten schools from around South Australia participated. Fourteen teachers used the curriculum material provided by Bindii to the Langhorne Creek Festival organizers to teach haiku.
With an average class size of thirty, around 420 students were taught haiku by the Langhorne Creek Writers’ Festival. In each school the three best haiku from each grade category were entered. There were 26 entries. In addition to the four First Prize Winners, there were 10 commended poems.
In their report the judges (Lynette Arden and Lee Bentley from Bindii) commented: ‘the winning haiku in each of the categories were chosen because they have strong clear images with emotional impact and good haiku structure with two distinct parts to each poem. Among the other entries it was pleasing to see that the students have really looked at using concrete imagery in their haiku.’
At the award presentation, the winners were recognized with a certificate, the First Prize Winners won $50 and a basket of books for their school library.
All sixteen participating schools attended the Literacy Day at Langhorne Creek School on 14 September. Over 70 students attended.
http://haiku-bindii.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/langhorne-creek-writers-festival-young.html