Eucalypt: a tanka journal is now open for submissions for issue 41.
Closing date 30th September 2026.
Please submit up to six original, unpublished tanka in the body of your email to editor.eucalypt@gmail.com
Paste your tanka into the body of the email, together with your full name and address, and a statement that they are original, unpublished poems, written without the use of AI, and not under consideration elsewhere.
The August 2026 Eucalypt: a tanka journal e-Newsletter is now online. The Distinctive Scribble Awards from issue 40 are announced, with appraisals. Tanka on the theme the Four Elements: earth, wind, water, air, are also included for your reading enjoyment.
confluence offers emerging haiku and tanka poets a unique opportunity to showcase a representative selection of their work and to collaborate with other poets. Each issue of the journal will feature 1 to 2 poet Fellows and publish at least 15 poems of the selected poet’s work along with critical commentary by other poets. Fellows join a year-long cohort, with opportunities for collaborative writing, monthly craft discussions, and one-on-one mentorship with an established Japanese short-form poet. Submissions are open through August 31, 2026 at confluence haiku.
Award winner: Haiku Society of America Rengay Award 2026
Ron Moss and Paula Sears were awarded second place in the Haiku Society of America 2026 Rengay Award in Honour of Garry Gay.
It’s worth following the link to see the award winning rengay and Garry Gay and Renee Owen’s list of ingredients for exemplary rengay.
Winner 2026 #Femkumag’s Marlene Mountain Memorial Contest
Robyn Cairns was thrilled and honoured to be awarded joint first place in the 2026 #Femkumag Marlene Mountain Memorial Contest with her haiku:
adapting to deep fake ocean the last blue whale
The Femkumag Marlene Mountain Memorial Contest winners are featured in Issue 42.
News from the west
Rose van Son facilitated a haiku workshop, at the invitation of the Perth City Library, on 4 July, 2026. Twenty three excited people attended this 2.5 hour workshop. Rose van Son – Haiku, In love with Basho workshop. Many of the attendees had not written haiku before but were interested in the form.
Welcome to the August Members’ News, our fourth issue for 2026, which touches on the Japanese concept of Ma, discusses recent and upcoming activities, and reports on our successful mentorship trial.
The sky so blue, and not a breath of wind. In fact, some members commented that spring had arrived with the flowering of everlastings featured in street plantings. The forecast temperature was 25 degrees!
Eight excited haiku lovers – including two new attendees – enjoyed the Café’s coffee welcome and discussion of what constitutes haiku. And so, it was a recap session for haiku guidelines. To get in the Haiku Mind, we read a variety of haiku from various Australian collections, discussed their meanings and associations, and the importance of immersion, mindfulness, and brevity for writing. The consensus was that readers of haiku bring their own associative responses to a haiku. And writers, too, write from an association, often a memory, of what a scene, a sound, means to them, and where it may take them. The group also discussed the use of simple language in haiku.
There was so much to enjoy at Perth City Farm, a half-hectare garden site close to the city and transport. It was our second visit, having visited during the autumn ginko. It is a ‘working’ farm with herbs and vegetables, chickens, flowers—so much to stimulate the senses. Its website states it ‘enables connected, sustainable lives in harmony with nature.’ A perfect, relaxing venue for our winter ginko, and for visiting, walking and writing anytime!
cloudy skies brilliant sunsets gifts of winter
Aileen Hawkes
vegetable patch sweet peas this side of the train line
Rose van Son
‘children playing’ yet the concrete floor is cold and bare
Our numbers are slowly growing and we achieved our third meeting on Saturday morning, at the Brisbane Square Library.
With six people, a range of experienced haijin and relative newcomers, we looked at the function of kireji, samples of published work from various online journals and our own recent haiku. The meeting room is regularly cooled to uncomfortable levels, and this day was no exception so the extra layers we’d all brought proved very useful.
Our next meeting is August 8th, 10.30 am. There’s still room for more, so anyone interested is welcome. Just let me know on duncrich@outlook.com if you’re coming, so we can organize enough copies of haiku for everyone,
