President’s Message
Spring has arrived in Sydney, with cherry blossoms on full display last month at Auburn Botanical Gardens, where a small group of poets from all over the city gathered to read beside a shady billabong.
It was my pleasure to see a great many Australian haiku poets participating in Haiku Down Under 2024. Weeks later I continue to reflect on the shared ideas and activities. Exposed to new, overlooked or forgotten aspects of haiku craft, we were stimulated to experiment, diverge from established habits, and explore the impact that different word choices or line-breaks can have. Reminded of the power of engaging with all our senses, of how reality can be unveiled by attending to small moments and insignificant things. Motivated to immerse ourselves periodically in the natural world for our wellbeing. And to delight in laughing when life is absurd. Perhaps you’ve been inspired to connect with fellow poets as a result of your participation. To feel part of a community of creative and interesting people is so rewarding.
Organising a gathering such as Haiku Down Under takes a great collaborative effort, and I’m grateful to everyone who helped to deliver it, particularly my three co-organisers, Sue Courtney (New Zealand), Carole Harrison (Australia) and Carol Reynolds (Australia). I’m deeply appreciative of the generosity of the 20+ speakers whose volunteer efforts were fundamental to delivering a diverse programme of presentations, workshops and discussions. My gratitude also goes to the Session Hosts who played a vital role over the weekend. Thanks, too, to the Portarlington Haiku Society for organising the associated contest. Australian poets took out first and second place – congratulations to Louise Hopewell and Thomas Landgraf. Although the conference is over, there is an anthology still to come.
I think the two Haiku Down Under conferences in 2022 and 2024 show what a small dedicated band of enthusiasts can achieve. I hope that others will take up the challenge to create new opportunities, even on a small or local scale, for Australian haiku poets to share and learn together.
Leanne Mumford
Australian Haiku Society Committee
The AHS Committee met on 26th August, and we discussed a few activities that we are planning for the remainder of the year and beyond. We’ll soon be celebrating the Spring Equinox with a haiga contest. In the coming months submissions will open for the John Bird Dreaming Award. We are actively revising our website and Facebook social media. We are also commencing a review of the Australian Haiku Society as an organisation, and we’ll be consulting with you, our community of Australian haiku poets, as part of that. One idea we will consider is how we might support or facilitate mentoring. Stay tuned for announcements and opportunities.
Echidna Tracks open for submissions
Echidna Tracks: Issue 14 Summer/Autumn 2025 will be published on 6 January 2025. Simon Hanson and Marilyn Humbert will be the haiku editors for this issue. We invite your best and previously unpublished haiku/senryu on any topic that stirs your imagination. If you choose a seasonal reference, it should be compatible with the publication’s Summer/Autumn time frame.
Please submit your haiku/senryu on the form available on the submissions page throughout September 2024. Submissions will only be received via the submissions form.
Anyone can submit work, but as this is a website for the collection of Australian haiku, the work we are looking for will come from an authentic experience of living in or visiting Australia. Unfortunately, we cannot consider your submission if we cannot verify an Australian connection.
Echidna Tracks will be calling for submissions of haiga during October. See our haiga page: https://echidnatracks.com/haiga/
AFL Grand Final Kukai
The AFL Grand Final Haiku Kukai will take place once again this year. Rob Scott will host this event primarily on Facebook, but poets are also welcome to post their haiku about the game on the AHS website. The grand final is on Saturday, 28th September. Check back here for further details in the coming weeks.
Book Launch in Bendigo, 5th October
Michael Leach’s book of haiku, Rural Ecologies, will be launched at Bendigo Library on Saturday 5th October 2024 by Melbourne poet Amanda Anastasi, with a reading by Michael, as well as books sales and signing. Details and tickets from Eventbrite. Book details from In Case of Emergency Press.
Australian Haiku Society 