Haiku Society of America Contests & Awards

Annual Contests for 2024

The Society sponsors the following contests for haiku and related forms.

Guidleines and deadlines for Haiku Society of America contests sometimes change from year to year. We kindly ask that if you forward the contest announcements to anyone, please be sure to give them the entire announcement for the current year. We thank you now for your future cooperation and know that these changes will help ensure that all of our contests run smoothly for years to come. We look forward to your entries!

Haiku Society of America Haiku Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Haiku Society of America Senryu Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Haiku Society of America Haibun Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Haiku Society of America Rengay Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Haiku Society of America Renku Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Student Haiku & Senryu Competition
for Students in Grades 7-12

     --> Prevoius Winners

Best of Issue Frogpond Award Guidelines
     --> Previous Winners

 


The Annual Haiku Society of America Haiku Award in honor of Harold G. Henderson

These awards were originally made possible by Mrs. Harold G. Henderson in memory of Harold G. Henderson, cofounder the Haiku Society of America.

Deadline: July 31, 2023

HSA Haiku Award Contest: closed for 2023.

Adjudication: The names of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Awards: First Prize, $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. Winning haiku will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA Web site.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

To see the award haiku for 2023 and the judges' commentary:

HSA Haiku Awards 2023

See the entire collection of past award haiku:

HSA Haiku Competition Collection

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The Annual Haiku Society of America Senryu Award in memorial of Gerald Brady

The Gerald Brady Memorial awards were first made possible with a donation by Virginia Brady Young in memory of her brother, Gerald Brady.

Deadline: July 31, 2023

HSA Senryu Award Contest: closed for 2023.

Adjudication: The names of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Awards: First Prize, $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. Winning haiku will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA Web site.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

To see the award senryu for 2023 and the judges' commentary:

HSA Senryu Award 2023

See the entire collection of past award senryu:

HSA Senryu Competition Collection

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The Annual Haiku Society of America Haibun Award

Deadline: July 31, 2023

HSA Haibun Award Contest: closed for 2023.

Adjudication: The names of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Awards: First Prize, $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. Winning haibun will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA Web site.

Rights: All rights revert to the authors after publication.

To see the award haibun for 2023 and the judges' commentary:

HSA Haibun Awards 2023

See the entire collection of past award haibun:

HSA Haibun Competition Collection

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The Annual Haiku Society of America Rengay Award in Honor of Garry Gay

The Haiku Society of America proudly sponsors our annual contest for rengay!

Deadline: closed May 31, 2023.

Entries received after May 31 will not be accepted.

Adjudication: The names of the judge(s) will be announced after the contest.

Awards: First Prize, $200; Second Prize, $150; Third Prize, $100. Winning rengay will be published in Frogpond and on the HSA website. All rights revert to authors on publication.

Note to prospective rengay contestants: The following essays provide invaluable information and inspiration:

"The Rengay Verse Form" by Joan Zimmerman:
http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/rengay.htm

"Rengay: An Introduction" by Michael Dylan Welch:
http://www.graceguts.com/essays/rengay-an-introduction

"Give Rengay A Try" by Michael Dylan Welch:
http://www.graceguts.com/essays/give-rengay-a-try

More essays on rengay by Michael Dylan Welch:
http://www.graceguts.com/rengay-essays

To see an anthology of past winners, visit the Haiku Society of America Rengay Award Collection:

HSA Rengay Competition Collection

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The Haiku Society of America Renku Award in memorial of Bernard Lionel Einbond

HSA Renku Award Contest: suspended until further notice.

See the entire collection of past award renku:

HSA Renku Competition Collection

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The Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Student Haiku and Senryu Competition for Grades 7-12

Virgilio-banner

Founded by the Sacred Heart Church in Camden, NJ, and co-sponsored by the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association in memory of Nicholas A. Virgilio, a charter member of the Haiku Society of America, who died in 1989. The Haiku Society of America is also a co-sponor of the contest, providing judges, and publishing the results in Frogpond and on the HSA Web site.

Virgilio Student Haiku Contest:
submissions deadline for 2024 - to be announced

Submissions open January 29, 2024

Deadline for submissions:Deadline: in hand by March 27, 2024.
Entries received after that date will not be accepted.

See the 2024 Student Haiku and Sentryu Contest Guidelines

See the 2023 award winning haiku!

Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial
Student Haiku and Senryu Competition Collection

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The Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards

The purpose of the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Awards is to recognize the best haiku and related books of haiku published in a given year in the English language. Every year sees a fresh crop of fine individual collections, anthologies, translations, critical studies and innovative forms. In the past, the HSA Merit Book awards were partially supported by a memorial gift. Leroy Kanterman, cofounder of the Haiku Society of America, made a gift to support the first place award in memory of his wife Mildred Kanterman. See the archives of Merit Book Awards.

See the complete listing of all awards for books published in 2023
and the judges commentary at this page:

Merit Book Awards 2023

Deadline:

HSA Merit Book Awards: submit books by February 15, 2024.

Submission of haiku books published in 2023
may be submitted after January 1, 2024.

Haiku books published with a 2023 copyright date should be submitted between January 1, 2024 and by February 15, 2024. Please do not send any entries before 1 January 2024.

Eligibility: The award is open to the public. Books must have been published in 2023 and must clearly contain a printed 2023 copyright. A member, author, or publisher may submit or nominate more than one title. At least 50 percent of the book must be haiku, senryu, or haibun, or prose about these subjects (books mostly of tanka, for example, are not eligible). Books published by HSA officers are eligible for this award. Books published by the national HSA organization, however, are not eligible.

Submissions: The HSA encourages members, authors, and publishers to proactively submit or nominate eligible books, not only so the judge(s) will consider them, but also so that the HSA can add these books to the permanent HSA Archives in the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library. Please send two copies of each book, noting them to be Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award entries. Authors or publishers should contact the first vice president before the deadline to ascertain that books have been received. In addition, authors and publishers are encouraged to communicate with each other so that duplicate entries are not submitted.

Note: digital or electronic books are eligible but you must send two printed copies of each book noting them to be Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award entries for them to be considered in this competition.

Entry fee: None; however, donations to offset costs are welcome. If including a donation, please make checks/money orders payable in U.S. funds to "Haiku Society of America."

Submit entries or nominations to:

Gary Hotham
Haiku Society of America VP
10460 Stansfield Road
Scaggsville, Maryland 20723
USA

If you have questions email: <hsavicepres@aol.com>.

Adjudication: The names of the judge(s) will be announced after the awards are decided.

Awards: $250 for first place, $200 for second place and $150 for third. The list of winners will be published in Frogpond first and immediately thereafter on the HSA Web site.

Rights: Books submitted will remain the property of the HSA, and one copy will be deposited in the permanent HSA Archives in the American Haiku Archives at the California State Library.

American Haiku Archives:

The official archives of the Haiku Society of America are with the American Haiku Archives (AHA) at the California State Library in Sacramento, California. AHA was founded in 1996, and is the world's largest public archive of haiku and related poetry outside Japan. All HSA publications are deposited to the archives, as are submissions to the Merit Book Awards. The HSA encourages all its members to deposit their papers, correspondence, and other haiku-related materials and books (if not already in the collection) with the archives. For more information, visit the AHA site at <http://www.americanhaikuarchives.org> (click the How to Donate option).

To see past winners, visit the archive of Haiku Society of America Merit Book Awards.

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The Best of Issue Frogpond Award Sponsored by the Museum of Haiku Literature

This award is sponsored by the Museum of Haiku Literature in Tokyo. A single best-of-issue haiku in each issue of Frogpond will be awarded a cash prize. Award-winning haiku are chosen by the HSA Executive Committee from those published in each issue of Frogpond and are announced in the following issue. These haiku will also be published on the HSA Web site.

To see an anthology of past winners, visit the Best of Issue Frogpond Award Collection.

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