The editor for 2024 is Edward Cody Huddleston.
HSA Members Anthology Submissions Now Open
see the
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submission period: April 1- May 15, 2024.
Submissions are due in hand by midnight EST, May 15, 2024.
2023 HSA Haiku Contest
Judged by
Brad Bennett & Caroline Skanne
See 2023 judges' comments
~ First Place ~
milkweed husks
the dusk greens
with dragonflies
Joshua Gage, OH, USA
~ Second Place ~
unable to fit it
on one sketchbook page
the young hawk’s circle
paul m., Florida, USA
~ Honorable Mention ~
where the bufflehead
entered dark water
bubbles of light
John Barlow, Ormskirk, UK
~ Honorable Mention ~
one log left
beside the log-splitter
a sliver of moon
Temple Cone, MD, USA
~ Honorable Mention ~
desert dawn an ash-throated flycatcher
M F Drummy, CO, USA
~ Honorable Mention ~
maple stump
the sky still holding
the old treehouse
Jacquie Pearce, BC, Canada
2023 HSA Haibun Contest
Judged by
Marilyn Ashbaugh & Sean O’Connor
2023 Judges Commentary
2023 First Place:
by Dru Philippou, NM, USA
Pilgrimage
On my way to Fuji-san, I stop by a bakery and buy their specialty tribute bread, made from the finest ingredients: Yamanashi wheat flour, Fujigane Kogen milk for its velvety richness, and Kyoho grape juice for sweetness and color. I slice through the loaf and see a striking blue-and-white rendition of the mountain. Biting into its pillowy softness, I think of the fabled Princess Kaguya, who gave the Emperor a vial containing the elixir of life before she left for home on the moon. Unable to live without her, the Emperor ordered his warriors to burn her farewell offering on the highest mountain, giving it the name Immortal. On a day like this, it could live forever.
shining through
the morning mist . . .
Fuji’s many paths
the wind of Mt Fuji
I’ve brought on my fan
a gift from Edo
Note: The haiku in italics is by Basho, translated by Etsuko Yanagibori.
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Second Place:
by Alan Peat, Staffordshire, UK
Corpse Way*
On this long, flat stone — the first of six where the dead were rested — I am sat with my dad, watching crows. Not crows in flight, but walking crows, the ones that move between sheep with that slow, yet determined gait, enlivened now and then with a fluttering hop. This is our regular stop: for tea and biscuits as the views open up.
dawnlight —
with no map or compass
our whole day ahead
A wicker coffin to lighten the load. Too poor for a horse and cart, his neighbors will carry him — sixteen hard, winding miles from Keld to Grinton — over tree roots, across flowing water, then up to the high ground, far from hushed hamlets, where the living might tempt a dead man back. And when they reach St. Andrew’s lichgate, the old warden will lift the lid and, if his body is wrapped in wool cloth, his bones will be fit for the consecrated ground.
less trodden path —
the unpicked berries
black and shrunk
On the last of the coffin stones I am sat quite alone. It is a fine spot to rest in the gentle lower dale, in the heart of its patchwork of drystone-walled grass. The church door marks the end of my walk. I will pass through it soon enough, but for now I am content to stay seated; happy to listen to the lapwings’ calls.
unmoved for so long —
the yew tree I climbed
as a boy
*Corpse Ways are medieval paths that remote English communities walked to the closest consecrated burial ground.
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Third Place:
by Barbara A Sabol, OH, USA
Kintsugi
Wide open at thirteen. It was a year of blood, of trying to fit into a bewildering body. On the doorstep of summer break, I was itching for freedom. As I pulled on my wool uniform, thoughts of sleeping late, running wild ’til the streetlights came on ... . The news of Bobby’s death rang from the transistor on my dresser. I fell back onto the bed as our house plunged off its foundation. I refused to go to school. Diagrams and fractions suddenly meaningless. Catechism, more than ever, hollow rote.
I had had my schoolgirl crushes, my disappointments. This was a different kind of heartbreak. A rip in the seam of the world I was just getting to know.
bird bone flute
the hollow sound
wind makes
What I remembered about his brother’s assassination five years earlier was that it made my impassive mother cry for days. Then the never-ending funeral procession on television. Otherwise, my childhood world remained intact. That was the same year my uncle fell from a ladder and lay for the rest of his days staring at the ceiling in the Veterans Hospital.
But mom still put dinner on the table every day, dad kept going to his job at the mill, and I would learn how to find a common denominator that bound together fractured things.
lightning-split redbud
and yet
blossoms
~ ~ ~
2023 HSA Rengay Contest
Judged by
Marcyn Del Clements & Seren Fargo
Judges Commentary
2023 First Place
Yellowing Maple
Japanese garden—
the emptiness
of the teahouse
grass in the cherry orchard
wet with dew
stepping stones . . .
different languages
in the air
hungry koi —
the moonbridge crowded
with children
the calligraphy
of pine branches
a turtle sunning
at the pond’s edge—
yellowing maple
Ion Codrescu 1, 3 & 5
Michael Dylan Welch 2, 4 & 6
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James Chessing and Sondra J. Byrnes, judges
of the best books published in 2022
see the judges commentary
HAIKU BOOK AWARDS:
First Place
Where Rain Would Stay: The Haiku Poetry of Peggy Willis Lyles, Edited by John Barlow & Ferris Gilli, Snapshot Press, 2022
Second Place
Peter Newton. Glide Path. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press, 2022
Third Place
John Hawkhead. Bone Moon. Uxbridge, UK; Alba Publishing, 2022
Honorable Mentions (not ranked but in alphabetical order by author)
Brad Bennett, A Box of Feathers, Red Moon Press, 2022
Bill Cooper. Rounded by the Sea. Winchester, VA; Red Moon Press
Bruce H. Feingold, Everything with an Asterisk, Red Moon Press, 2022
Aaron Barry, Eggplants & Teardrops: A Haiku Collection, 2022
See the complete listing of all awards as well as the 2023 judges commentary at this page: Merit Book Awards 2023.
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The Haiku Society of America is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1968 to promote the writing and appreciation of haiku in English. The HSA has been meeting regularly since its inception and sponsors meetings, readings, publications and contests. The HSA has over 1000 members around the country and overseas. Membership is open to all readers, writers, and students of haiku. Join today.
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Rengay Award Submissions Now Open
see the
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submission Period: April 1 - May 31, 2024.
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Events & Gatherings
of Interest for HSA Members
We want to feature events, conferences and gatherings of interest to members of the Haiku Society of America. Please follow this new feature on our meetings page.
<brooksbooks@gmail.com>
Specific details about these events change frequently, but these links should help you seek current information. Some of these links are to organizations with several events. We invite HSA members and haiku event planners to send us information about additional events and conferences. Please email URLs or contact information to the HSA webmaster at: <brooksbooks@gmail.com>
Australian Haiku Society
2024 events
British Haiku Society
events
Cradle of American Haiku
08/23 - 08/25, 2024
Edinburgh Haiku Circle
Haiku Canada Weekend
05/17 - 05/19, 2024
The Haiku Circle
Haiku Down Under
08/16 - 08/18, 2024
The Haiku Foundation's Events
04/17 - International Haiku Poetry Day
Haiku North America
2025 - San Francisco, CA
Haiku Northwest
2024 events
Haiku Poets of Northern California
2024 events
Haiku Poets of Northern California
Two Autumns Reading
09/22, 2024
Haiku Society of America
meetings
Hailstones Haiku Circle
2024 events
New Zealand Poetry Society
HaikuNewz
Nick Virgilio Haiku Association
events
North Carolina Haiku Society
2023 Haiku Holiday
Seabeck Haiku Getaway
10/24 - 10/27, 2024
Tanka Society of America
events
Triveni Haikai
events
Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival
Haiku Invitational Contest
03/29 - 03/31, 2024
Wild Graces Haiku Gathering
08/24, 2024
World Haiku Association
Yukei Teikei Haiku Society
2024 events
Yukei Teikei Haiku Society
Retreat at Asilomar, CA
11/07 - 11/10, 2024
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The Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Student Haiku and Senryu Competition for Grades 7-12
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 February 1, 2024
and close on March 27, 2024.
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
now open for 2023 book nominations
See Complete Guidelines
The purpose of the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Awards is to recognize the best haiku and related books 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.
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.
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See the web site sampler of
Frogpond 47.1, Winter 2024
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Judges: Julie & Dan Schwerin
See 2023 judges' comments
First Place
sexagenarian —
it’s not what I thought
it would be
John Savoie, IL, USA
~
Second Place
Lev Hart, Alberta, Canada
~
Third Place
coastal clean-up
the message in
an empty bottle
Alvin Cruz, Manila, Philippines
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HSA Member Memorials
Haiku Society of America often features short memorials of members who have recently died. Usually these memorials are provided by HSA Regional Coordinators and featured in the Haiku Society of America Newsletter. We want to honor these HSA members who have died on this archive of HSA Member Memorials.
This is a new feature on the HSA web site. We will include brief memorials of HSA members. If you would like to send information about an HSA member who has recently died please send complete information to your HSA Regional Coordinator.
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Check out our Frogpond history:
the Archive of
Frogpond Journal
Archive of Frogpond Journal
(all issues from 1978-2020)
Haiku Society of America is pleased to provide access to PDF copies of back issues of Frogpond. This includes all but the most recent issues published in the last two years.
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Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition Anthology
edited by Randy M. Brooks
designed by Ignatius Fay
© 2022 HAIKU Society of America
To commemorate the 30th Anniversary of the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Competition, the executive committee of the Haiku Society of America published this anthology of award-winning haiku and senryu. The student observations, insights, experiences, emotions and insights evident in these haiku and senryu are a wonderful testament to the fresh voices and vivid imagery of young people. We believe the judges’ commentaries add a valuable layer of meaning as we see how leaders, editors, writers and members of the Haiku Society of America carefully consider the significance of each award-winning poem.
Download your PDF copy for a teacher in your area.
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Support HSA with a Donation
The Haiku Society of America is a not-for-profit organization that is dependent on membership dues and much appreciated donations.
Friend: Up to $49
Donor: $50-$99
Sponsor: $100 or more
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