- President’s Message
- Achievements and Accolades
- Spring Equinox 2025 – Haiku Musings Event
- Mentorship Trial
- Footy Grand Final Kukai
- New Editor for Haiku Xpressions at FreeXpresSion Magazine
President’s Message
Around Sydney, wattles are starting to bloom and spring is not far away, despite the many rainy days. The AHS executive committee met on 4th August. Topics discussed included the trial mentorship programme we are planning to offer in the last quarter of the year, plans for an interactive event to mark the spring equinox and progress on revising the Regional Representatives roles and associated geographic coverage. We are also hoping to organise some online readings before the end of the year.
The 6th August 2025 marked 80 years since the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Japan had sought to be a world power through military force. It lost the war, but these days Japan’s soft power is significant on the global stage, thanks to its business and trade success, as well as many cultural exports, including sushi, anime, J-pop and literature, among others. Haiku plays a part in this, a creative force connecting people peacefully in our own troubled times.
The 6th August was also the day I chose to conduct a ginkō-based haiku workshop at Barangaroo in Sydney. Four poets had travelled from the Newcastle area, joining one from Sydney. With everyone having done some preparatory reading and exercises, the workshop was off to a great start. All joined in discussing a few key concepts before setting out to gather inspiration. Each poet explored the parklands and harbour foreshore of Barangaroo Reserve on an individual ginkō. This was followed by a composition period, during which I gave each participant suggestions on their work-in-progress. All poets then took turns to read draft poems aloud to the group, with some feedback and discussion. At the conclusion of the formal workshop, we continued talking haiku over take-away lunches. It was my pleasure to share enthusiasm for haiku with such an engaged group of poets, and I’m grateful for their active participation. The workshop was a great way to learn together in the tradition of haiku as a collaborative art form.
Achievements and Accolades
Congratulations to Australian poets on their recent achievements. Carol Reynolds won First Place in our own Haiga contest for the Winter Solstice. Owen Bullock received an Honorable Mention for the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Competition 2025, announced in Modern Haiku 56.2.
Grant Caldwell’s Book Launch, 25th August
Grant Caldwell’s new book of haiku, the soundless sound, published by Red Moon Press, was launched by Rob Scott on 25th August. Rob writes:
It was an honour to launch Grant’s book at the John Medley Library at the University of Melbourne. Grant is a keen scholar and a critical mind about haiku in this country and around the globe through his own studies, editorial and poetic works. His collection reflects his simple approach to writing haiku, resisting abstraction and trusting that reality, faithfully and honestly recorded, carries its own quiet poetry. Many of the haiku in this collection are grounded in careful observation, not idealized nature or emotional flourish, but the unembellished truth of a moment exactly as it is. The dripping of a kitchen tap, a magpie perched on a chimney, passing cars blowing leaves along the gutter—these scenes are rendered with painterly restraint, stripped of metaphor yet rich with presence. Some of the images Grant has rendered in this book are so unremarkable and even indistinct as to be like little bits of pollen on a mouse’s handkerchief, but it is precisely because of Grant’s wit to notice that they become concrete and compelling, inviting the reader to share Grant’s experience of the moment. He sees things others don’t.
Please don’t forget to let us know your achievements. Use the Contact Secretary form to get in touch if you’ve won an award, published a book, etc.
Spring Equinox 2025 – Haiku Musings Event
To mark the Southern Hemisphere Spring Equinox in 2025, we will be offering a new interactive opportunity – a chance to contribute a Haiku Musing and to respond to other poets’ musings. The prompt question for you to muse on is:
What do you find most helpful when writing haiku?
Writing a haiku can involve many considerations, such as where you find inspiration, the kinds of experiences you like to write about, your aims and approach, haiku craft and techniques you employ, and how you go about editing your compositions. You will be invited to share your thoughts on aspects important to your haiku compositional process.
Please keep your Musing succinct, to no more than 250 words.
During the event you will also be invited to respond to other poets’ musings with succinct comments.
This Haiku Musing event will open on Saturday 20th September 2025, Australian time, and close on Sunday 28th September.
Why not start thinking now about what you might like to share with fellow poets? We look forward to contributions from haiku poets worldwide.
Mentorship Trial
The Australian Haiku Society is excited to be offering three mentorships as a trial programme from September this year. Apart from the learning opportunities for mentees and mentors, this trial will provide information to the society to potentially develop a more substantial mentorship programme in the future. Full details, including a link to the application form, will be announced shortly.
Footy Grand Final Kukai
Rob Scott will again host the annual AFL Grand Final Kukai on Saturday 27th September. This has been running for over a decade now and is a popular event for footy fans and non-footy fans alike. Members will have the opportunity to either join the event on Facebook or post some haiku on the AHS website. Stay tuned for details.
New Editor for Haiku Xpressions at FreeXpresSion Magazine
New Zealand poet Anne Curran has been appointed to replace Cynthia Rowe as editor of the Haiku Xpressions pages on FreeXpressions Magazine. See our Haiku Journals: Australia resource for how to submit.
Australian Haiku Society 