August 2023
Recent awards for Australian Haiku Poets
There have been a few international competition results come out recently in which Australians have fared well. Lyn Reeves was one of the winners of this year’s Haiku Calendar Competition, and Mark Miller, together with Lyn, was among the runners-up. Mark Miller took out second prize in the 26th Mainichi Haiku Contest, in which Rob Scott also received an honorable mention. Well done Lyn, Mark and Rob!
Australian haiku poets also did well in the recently announced Haiku section results of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition. Gavin Austin and Owen Bullock each received ‘Highly commended’, while five poets were ‘Commended’ for their entries: Jan Dobb, Simon Hanson, Ron Moss, Lyn Reeves, Cynthia Rowe. Congratulations to all these fine poets!
Anthology Update
The editors of 4AHA (The Fourth Anthology of Australian Haiku) are happy to report that the anthology is currently with the publisher and will be released later this year. The response to the call for submissions was overwhelming and everyone whose work has been selected has been contacted. There are over 100 poets represented in the anthology, making it the largest ever produced in this country. Stay tuned for further details of its release. We can’t wait to share it with you.
-Vanessa Proctor, Lyn Reeves & Rob Scott (Editors).
New global haiku book
The Routledge Global Haiku Reader edited by James Shea and Grant Caldwell was released in late June 2023. The reader is a collection of sixteen critical essays from leading global scholars in the field addressing the contentious phenomenon of the global reach of haiku beyond Japan, particularly in recent times. The essays highlight the diverse approach to the form worldwide as well as the influence of haiku on modern poetics. For more details on the contents, visit the Routledge webpage.
The book is expected to have an Australian launch soon. We’ll let you know once we receive more information.
Echidna Tracks open for submission in september
For Echidna Tracks Issue 12: Open Theme, we invite your best and previously unpublished haiku and senryu on any topic that stirs your imagination.
The submission period for Issue 12 will be open during September 2023. Please carefully read the guidelines on the Submissions page. Please make your submissions via the Submissions Form.
We sometimes publish haiku with an accompanying image at the discretion of the editors. Images are a response to the haiku; they are not intended to be haiga. If you do not wish your haiku to be accompanied by an image, please indicate this when submitting.
Anybody can submit work relevant to Australia – but as this is a website for the collection of Australian haiku, the work we are looking for will come out of an authentic experience of living in or visiting Australia.
-Lynette Arden
Haiku Down Under returning in August 2024
Planning has started for the second iteration of Haiku Down Under, to be held Friday to Sunday 16th-18th August 2024. The organisers will soon be calling for Australian and New Zealand haiku poets to put forward proposals for workshops, presentations, readings and other activities for the conference. Further details, including the conference theme, will be announced on the Haiku Down Under website as they become available, so stay tuned!
International Katherine Mansfield 100 contest
To celebrate the Centenary of NZ writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), an International Haiku Competition will take place 15 July – 15 September 2023. It is divided into two sections, one for adults aged 21 years and over, and the other for junior poets aged 20 years and younger. The deadline is midnight of 15 September 2023, NZ time. There is no submission fee. The prize winners will be invited to read their haiku at the International Katherine Mansfield 100 Festival, to be held online 17-19 November 2023. The judges are Alan Peat (UK) for Adult Division and Zoe Grant (NZ) for Junior Division. For detailed submission guidelines, please visit the contest webpage.
Australian Haiku Society 