Leanne Mumford – Australian Haiku Society

Members’ News June 2026

Welcome to the third issue of Australian Haiku Society Members’ News for 2026. In this edition Leanne reflects on dogs and other animals as subjects of haiku, there are links to a review of The Routledge Global Haiku Reader and to the latest Fringe Myrtles Report in which Rob Scott discusses Grant Caldwell’s presentation of fueki ryūko.

New Secretary & other Committee news

The Committee is pleased to welcome Nick O’Connor as the new Secretary. As well as being a thoughtful poet, Nick brings a wealth of administrative experience to the role.

The AHS Executive Committee met last on 11th May. Among the matters discussed were upcoming events we are planning – a photo haiga contest to mark the Winter Solstice, a second Haiku Reading Event following the Queensland one on 22nd April, and preliminary plans for the fourth iteration of the John Bird Dreaming Award contest, which will open towards the end of the year.

President’s Message

After our previous dog died during the COVID years, my partner and I were not ready for another dog until now. We recently adopted two small rescue dogs, who are bringing chaos and joy to our household. Their arrival prompted me to think about animals in haiku. Domesticated animals are part of our lives, so it’s no wonder they make their way into our haiku.

spring sunshine . . .
how our old dog
would have basked
Leanne Mumford, AHS Haiku String: Spring Equinox 2023

record highs
kelpies caper
in a bore trough
Marietta McGregor, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2024

ginger cat
curled on my lap
evening falls
Alison Rogers, AHS Haiku String: Winter Solstice 2024

alone on the trail
my attention
horse centred
Myra King, AHS Haiku String: Autumn Equinox 2020

Among the Japanese masters, Issa is known for his compassion for insects. Small creatures that are often overlooked are also to be found in English Language Haiku. During the pandemic lockdowns, when I was working from home, I was fortunate to be able to take breaks outside in my garden. In those days, companionship with any other living thing seemed precious.

skinks and I
warming our backs
shortest day
Leanne Mumford, Modern Haiku 51.3, 2020

loneliness—
becoming a blood brother
with a mosquito
Mirela Brailean, AHS Haiku String International Poetry Day 2020

Of course, nature is a major preoccupation for haiku poets, and there are many poems about wild animals, with birds being perhaps the most frequently mentioned. Although I live in an inner city neighbourhood, at various times of the year grey-headed flying foxes visit my backyard to feed on native flowers.

bat chatter
in the firewheel tree
starry night
Leanne Mumford, A Hundred Gourds 2:4, 2013

a tiger snake
in the tomato patch . . .
dark thunder
Ron C. Moss, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2018

still water
a jellyfish
kisses the surface
Margaret Mahony, AHS Haiku String: Summer Solstice 2017

three eggs
in a mud nest
peewee duet
Louise Hopewell, AHS Haiku String: Spring Equinox 2020

Previous haiku strings have been compiled into PDF books, which are available to download and browse at any time.

Leanne Mumford

The Routledge Global Haiku Reader

The Routledge Global Haiku Reader, edited by James Shea and Grant Caldwell received an extensive review by Michael Farrell in the Sydney Review of Books.More information about the book, published in 2023, including the table of contents, can be found on the Routledge website.

Fueki ryūkō: the unchanging and ever-changing

Grant Caldwell gave a presentation on fueki ryūkō, ‘the unchanging and the ever-changing’, at the Fringe Myrtles Haiku Group in May that might be of wider interest.

Basho-an: a haiku journey

Duncan Richardson’s new collection of haiku/senryu is out and available as a paperback at Lulu.

Upcoming Gadigal Ginkō for Sydney poets: Saturday 20th June

The next Gadigal Ginkō will take place on Saturday 20th June, 2026 from 10am. For this winter gathering we will meet at the State Library, which will provide options for both indoor and outdoor ginkō. To join with other Sydney haiku poets for this event, please register via the form on my Gadigal Ginko page. There you’ll find an outline of what’s involved in the ginkō, as well as links to reports of previous ginkō.

Leanne Mumford
Convenor, Gadigal Ginko

Queensland Poets Haiku Reading Event, 22nd April

Join us on Wednesday 22nd April from 7.30pm AEST for a Zoom reading by three experienced haiku poets from Queensland – Duncan Richardson, Jeffrey Harpeng and Vuong Pham. The programme will include a brief presentation from AHS, the planned readings and an ‘open mic’ session. The event is free and open to all interested poets to attend. Please register by 9am AEST on 22nd April to receive the Zoom link. Link for the Registration form.

There is still space in the programme for additional poets. If you are a Queensland haiku poet who would like to read your work at this event, please get in touch right away via the Contact Secretary Form.

Members’ News April 2026

Welcome to the second issue of the Australian Haiku Society’s Members’ News for 2026. This edition focuses on two upcoming events, and includes notices for two journal submission opportunities, plus contest success news. Read on for details.

President’s Message

In this time of global uncertainty, with wars in other parts of the world that nonetheless impact our daily lives in Australia, as well as increasingly unpredictable extreme weather driven by climate change, haiku poetry can be a wonderful balm. It might be through composing haiku by paying attention to our immediate surroundings and circumstances or finding inspiration in small and otherwise mundane chores and observations. It might be through connecting with other poets on a ginko, in a workshop or simply by reading their poems, which inevitably bring different perspectives to our own lives. And in these difficult economic times, haiku can be a very inexpensive passion to pursue.

And speaking of connecting with others through haiku, ‘connection’ will be the theme of our International Haiku Poetry Day event this year.

The AHS Executive Committee met on 16th March. We confirmed that we will be running the fourth contest for the John Bird Dreaming Award for Haiku, opening for submissions towards the end of this year and closing in early 2027. To celebrate International Haiku Poetry Day on 17th April, this year we will be running a haiku string on the theme of ‘connection’. The mentoring trial has concluded and we are currently evaluating it. We will have more news on future mentorships in due course. A haiku reading event with Queensland poets will take place on 22 April. Our new Secretary is in the process of learning the ropes, and will soon be responding to inquiries.

Leanne Mumford

International Haiku Poetry Day, 17 April 2026

International Haiku Poetry Day is celebrated every year on 17th April. This year the Australian Haiku Society will be conducting a Haiku String event. We welcome contributions from haiku poets worldwide. The string will open on Friday 17th April Australian time and will remain open until 24th April. The theme of this string is ‘connections’.

Connections is a broad theme. Connection can take many forms and be between or to different kinds of entities. Connections might be between people or other living things, to nature or spirit, to place, history or culture. We invite you to explore through haiku and senryu varied connections in your own life and the wider world we all share. Further details are coming soon.

While AHS will be running a haiku string, we also invite poets and groups around Australia to celebrate International Haiku Poetry Day in other ways, including out in your community. Poets from Melbourne’s Fringe Myrtles group will be reading at Woodend Chamber Poets on 18th April.

What will you be doing? Please use the Contact Secretary form to let us know so we can promote your event or include a report on your activity in the next Members’ News.

If you are stuck for ideas, here are a few. Some are easy to organise spontaneously and others take a little more planning.

Display haiku in your local library. This could be in the form of a ‘Haiku Wall’, or something more elaborate, such as a cherry tree made of cardboard. People could write haiku on pink blossom shapes to pin onto the tree.
Organise a ginko at the zoo. You could even ask to have a display or reading while you are there.
Leave a haiku or a chap-book of haiku anonymously somewhere public, such as on public transport or at a local café – anywhere you can think of where people might find them.
In a similar vein, write haiku on rocks, leaves, bark, etc and leave those items in public places, such as neighbourhood parks. Or write them on postcards and leave them in cafes, your local library, etc. Write haiku on kites and fly them in parks, on beaches, etc.
Post some of your haiku to your local community Facebook group.
Offer to read some haiku on your local community radio station.
Planning further ahead, many cities around Australia hold Japan Festivals that typically showcase aspects of Japanese culture. Why not approach the organisers about your group displaying or reading haiku in English as a demonstration of Japanese culture adapted to Australia?
Or is there a local writers’ festival in your area that might be willing to host a haiku reading event?

Queensland Poets Haiku Reading Event, 22 April

AHS is hosting an online reading by Queensland haiku poets on Wednesday 22nd April from 7.30pm AEST. While Queensland poets will be reading, the event is free and open to all interested poets to join. However, you must register by 9am AEST on 22nd April to receive the Zoom link. The programme will include a brief presentation from AHS, the planned readings and an ‘open mic’ session.
Link for the Registration form.

Submission Windows for Australian Haiku Journals

Echidna Tracks

Echidna Tracks will now become an international publication, and welcomes submissions from haiku poets worldwide. As Echidna Tracks nominates haiku for the Touchstone Awards and the annual Red Moon Press anthology, be sure to send your best previously unpublished haiku/senryu on any topic. Gavin Austin and Marilyn Humbert will be the haiku editors for the next issue.

Submissions for Issue 17 will be open during April 2026. Please carefully read the guidelines on the Submissions page, as these have changed. Submissions will be received only via the submissions form.

Creatrix Haiku

The submission closing date for the next issue of Creatrix Haiku and Poetry Journal is midnight (Perth, Western Australia time) on 10th May for the June issue. Creatrix is a journal of WA Poets Inc.

Please visit the March 2026 issue #72 for a taste of the haiku Creatrix publishes. Scroll down the Submission Guidelines page for details of how to submit haiku and senryu via Submittable, as well as guidance on what the editors look for in haiku and senryu.

Contest Success

Congratulations to the three Australian Runners Up in the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition 2026: Marietta McGregor, Vanessa Proctor and Rob Scott. Their haiku will appear in the 2027 calendar. Snapshot Press is a leading publisher of haiku and tanka books based in the UK.

Haiku Society of America Rengay Award competition

The submission window for the Haiku Society of America Rengay Award competition will be from April 1, 2026, to May 31, 2026. The contest is open to the public. First Prize is $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. The winning rengay will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA website. All rights revert to authors on publication. Rengay is a shorter, more accessible version of renku and an easy and fun opportunity for two or three poets to collaborate. Find more information at
https://www.hsa-haiku.org/hsa-contests.htm#rengay

Submitted by Sarah Paris, HSA 2nd Vice President

Autumn Equinox 2026 Selections

The autumn equinox – when day and night are of equal length – has been an important marker of seasonal change throughout human cultures. With the observance of seasons a significant aspect of haiku practice, the Australian Haiku Society chooses to mark the solstices and equinoxes each year. This Southern hemisphere autumn, as leaves of exotic trees begin to change colour and many of our native plants come into flower, we invite you to enjoy a selection of favourite poems submitted to Haiku Strings in previous autumns. You can find PDF booklets of all the Haiku Strings we have held to date on our Resources page .

footy siren
picking the last
ripe tomato
Louise Hopewell, 2023

morning moonset
the black swan’s bill
blood red
Cathryn Daley, 2023

disagreement
morning walk together
alone
Carol Reynolds, 2020

dancing breeze
a hoop pine seed
glides in to land
Quendryth Young, 2023

outdoor café
more dogs in trendy coats
than people
Kathryn Woolfe, 2019

park bench
a two o’clock shadow
holds my hand
Barbara Tate, 2019

Opera House
an autumn breeze
fills the sails
Gavin Austin, 2019

flooded street
a man rescues
a teddybear
Kathleen Earsman, 2019

fire glow
the baby’s breath
on my cheek
Margaret Mahony, 2021

schoolchildren’s protest
their hearts displayed
on recycled cardboard
Marietta McGregor, 2019

chilly breeze
a spider’s thread shifts
the moonlight
Lyn Arden, 2023

rain clouds
blackening the sky
Carnaby’s cockatoos
Maureen Sexton, 2023

last song . . .
the busker turns
to his dog
Madhuri Pillai, 2020

slow steps
a curving path
walking to her grave
Maurice Neville, 2021

dogs long gone—
all their feeding bowls
overflow with rain
Ron C. Moss, 2020

Report on Gadigal Ginkō, Autumn 2026

With possible severe storms forecast, in the end only two poets gathered at Barangaroo on Wednesday morning 18th March. Remarkably, despite the heavy cloud, the rain held off for the whole time. The headland reserve was quiet, with few people about, so there was ample scope for contemplative walking.

Penny set off on the middle path through the naturalised scrub and woodland, while I followed the rocky foreshore. The Barangaroo headland may have been artificially created, but it is slowly re-wilding.

We found inspiration among the weathering sandstone blocks undergoing colonisation by shellfish, lichens and moss, in the grasses, trees, and shrubs, some of which were flowering, from a couple of darters and the ubiquitous noisy miners, and the general activity of the harbour.

At the end of the ginkō we sat in a café on one of the old finger wharves nearby exchanging draft poems and discussing the value of workshopping with diverse poets.

Leanne Mumford
Convenor, Gadigal Ginkō

Call for Submissions: 2026 confluence Poetry Prize

What does it mean to die? To accompany another being as their life ends? Or to face your own death? Poets across the ages have responded with grief, rage, wonder, acceptance, and beauty. We want to read what death and dying mean to you.

confluence invites you to submit one haiku, tanka, or other Japanese short-form poem on the theme of death and dying. The best poems will share in $500 in prize money and be published in confluence. Submissions are open now through May 1, 2026. There is no fee to submit.

Learn more and submit your poem at www.confluencehaiku.com/prize

Submitted by Rowan Beckett Minor, Associate Editor, confluence