Welcome to the first issue of Members’ News for 2026. We wish all readers a creatively satisfying year of haiku and related forms.
President’s Message
As most of you would know, haiku as a form evolved from a practice of collaborative composition, known as haikai no renga (俳諧の連歌 / はいかいのれんが). Poets got together to socialise and write linked verse. A haiku master usually supplied the initiating verse, known as hokku (発句 / ほっく). Collaborative verse has evolved among English Language Haiku Poets, in forms such as renku and rengay. For example, The Haiku Foundation regularly offers Renku Sessions and Michael Dylan Welch has a website of Rengay, while New Zealand-based Sherry Grant and daughter Zoe edit the Raining Rengay journal and host Zoom rengay sessions twice a year. AHS has our own Rengay workshop resource thanks to Subha Jayatilake, who led a workshop for the Bindii group last year.
Contemporary English Language Haiku more broadly also exists in a communal space. There is an ecosystem of haiku enthusiast volunteers who are journal editors, group convenors, workshop partners, conference organisers and presenters, mentors, society officers and more. So many people freely give their time and energy to support fellow haiku poets. The rewards may be as modest as watching someone new to haiku begin to flourish as a poet or knowing that you’ve helped fellow poets connect with each other. We do it for the love of haiku and the enjoyment this form brings us as readers and writers. Without these volunteers the ecosystem would collapse.
The start of a new year is a good time to consider how you might be able to contribute to the robust functioning of the Australian haiku ecosystem, whether it’s simply being a generous workshop partner or something more onerous, such as becoming a mentor, convening a group or joining the AHS committee. And if you see a gap in the ecosystem that you’d like filled, consider whether you could be the one to fill it through your own organising instead of waiting for someone else to meet your need. That is exactly what Duncan Richardson has been doing in initiating a new haiku group in Brisbane, as noted in our December news. His invitation to join the Brisbane group remains open. Meanwhile Jason Richardson in the NSW Riverina organised the ‘Stay Cool’ series of online workshops that has just concluded. To meet a need of my own, I started Gadigal Ginko in 2023 as an occasional casual gathering for Sydney haiku poets. Don’t hesitate to contact AHS for assistance and promotion of your new activity.
The AHS Executive Committee met on 10th February. Our most important item of business was to seek a new Secretary, as Alison Rogers unfortunately had to resign. We also discussed the mentorship trial and started to plan activities to celebrate the autumn equinox in March and International Haiku Poetry Day in April, as well as an opportunity for Queensland haiku poets to read their work. We will be offering similar opportunities to poets from other states and territories in coming months.
Leanne Mumford
Mentorship Trial Update
The mentorship trial programme initiated in the last quarter of 2025 is drawing to a close, with three mentorships completed and one almost finished. Anecdotally, the trial has been a success, but we will be undertaking an evaluation with a view to offering more mentorships in the future. Hopefully, we will be able to expand the programme to include some mentors who are not current AHS committee members.
Refreshed Website
Our web manager, Lynette Arden, recently redesigned the front page of the AHS website to provide more visible access to some of our most popular areas and the valuable information the AHS provides. The previous top and side menus remain unchanged, and the overall website content remains the same as before the front page changes.
Accolades & Achievements
Congratulations to Ewan Rourke, who was awarded first place in the ‘My Haiku Pond’ 10th anniversary contest.
We don’t usually take note of journal or magazine publications because there are so many haiku and senryu by Australians poets published every month. However, Roomers Magazine Issue #74 Summer 2025 included a series of poems handwritten onto leaves by Susanne Harford, with some used for the magazine’s cover images. The original leaves were gathered into a unique book. What an interesting way to present haiku!
Please don’t forget to let us know about your haiku and related forms achievements. We want to hear when you’ve won an award, received a prize, won or placed in a contest. Please tell us if your work has been the subject of a feature in a journal or your haiku-related essay has been published. We’d love to know if you have released, or are planning to launch, a new book of your poems. Perhaps you’ve been invited to judge a prestigious contest or to discuss haiku on the radio. Please use the Contact Secretary form to let us know your good news.
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