The GPS Haiku Competition 2023 is closed for submissions.
Winning and shortlisted poets will be notified in January 2024.
Photo Credit: Karen Hoy
We are pleased to announce that Alan Summers is the main judge for the Competition.
Alan Summers, Japan Times award-winning writer, is Call of the Page founder and mentor for haiku, haibun and related genres; and Pushcart Prize, and Best Small Fictions nominated poet for haibun, and multi-award winner in haiku.
In 2015, NHK TV of Japan made a feature titled “Europe meets Japan - Alan's Haiku Journey”, filmed locally and in London, concluding with a haiku walk in Bradford-on-Avon.
He’s co-founded, and founded, various ground-breaking haikai literature journals, and is currently editor-in-chief for The Pan Haiku Review, available as a free download at the Call of the Page website.
A longlist will be compiled by Karlostheunhappy (UK Beat Poet Laureate) and Jason Conway (Director of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society).
All longlisted poems are eligible for the 2023 Haiku Competition Anthology. Poets will be contacted to confirm if they are longlisted.
Submission Criteria
Haiku Poetry Competition 2023
Entries can be single standalone haiku (one line, duostich, tercet, or quatrain).
Various syllable counts allowed, including 5-7-5 approach. Max. 17 syllables.
Haiku Sequences are also welcome: no longer than 15 lines - the title and line spaces are not counted.
Entries must be submitted online.
Entries will be shortlisted and judged anonymously.
You can enter any number of poems.
Entries can be withdrawn by notification in writing.
Entry fees will not be refunded.
Entries may be submitted from anywhere in the world, provided they are in English and the correct fee is paid.
Format
Submission dates are from 1st September 2023 to 30th November 2023 (midnight UK time).
Entries can be on any subject.
Poems must be the entrant’s original work and not have been published, in any form, elsewhere.
Do not send illustrated poems.
The font used should be legible, ideally in 11-point black.
Each poem should be on separate pages in a Microsoft Word Document (.doc or .docx) or PDF.
‘Untitled’ is fine to use as the document name.
Do not include your name in the document or filename, or it will be disqualified.
No corrections can be made after receipt, nor fees be refunded.
Ideally, we would ask that you avoid dual submissions. However, we do recognise having poems tied up awaiting a decision can be difficult for poets. So, should a poem you have submitted to us be subsequently placed or published elsewhere, we should be notified immediately and the poem withdrawn. No fees will be refunded.
Please email poems (as an attachment) to the email address provided below after payment, with the subject line, 2023 Haiku Competition. Include your name in the email.
Judging
The judges’ decision is final, and no individual correspondence can be entered into. Judges are unable to comment on individual entries. Judging is fair and unbiased. The Gloucestershire Poetry Society reserves the right to change the panel of judges without notice if necessary.
Poems will be shortlisted & judged anonymously. All correspondence regarding entries must be sent via email.
Due to the high volume of submissions, we are unable to provide feedback on work that is unsuccessful. However, all entrants will receive an email notification of the results via the email used for their submission.
Entry implies acceptance of all the rules. Failure to comply with the entry requirements will result in disqualification.
The cost of submission is £3 per haiku or £10 for up to 4 haiku.
Submission Steps
1. Pay for your entry
2. EMAIL YOUR WORK to gpshaikucompetition@gmail.com
GPS Friendship members can enter up to 3 poems without charge as part of their membership. Please state in your email that you are a friendship member.
Copyright
The worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author. The GPS has unrestricted rights to publish the winning and runner-up poems in Steel Jackdaw magazine, Website and Social Media pages and any relevant promotional material.
Results
Winners and runners-up will be notified in January 2024, and cash prizes will be awarded accordingly.
Winners and runners-up will be published in Steel Jackdaw magazine.
Longlisted poems will be eligible for the 2023 Haiku Competition Anthology (To be published in early 2024). Poets will be contacted to confirm their wish to be included if longlisted.
Pay for your entry below:
Helpful Notes on Haiku
Haiku can be submitted in ‘free verse’ or 5-7-5, as a haiku sequence (max five tercets), 1 line haiku, duostich, or four lines.
Haiku is simply a short poem with a strong image.
A traditional haiku is usually made up of 17 syllables, normally in a 5-7-5 pattern across 3 lines.
There is no rhyme and normally no anthropomorphism (where we might project human emotions onto non-humans, like a rock, a tree, the moon or a duck, for example).
Haiku often suggest a season or seasonal activity (nature or urban) and the word that directly or indirectly assumes a season is called ‘kigo’ in Japan. Haiku can be about nature or urban topics, with or without a seasonal reference.
Senryu shares the haiku form but tends to be more human rather than based on nature and are often quietly humorous or ironic.
Both have a turn which normally reveals some insight or irony.
The GPS Haiku competition will accept any short haiku or senryu with or without season words and turn.
We’ll also accept single line haiku. And they don’t even have to be 17 syllables. They just need to be short, succinct poems of moment. Enjoy.
CLASSIC EXAMPLE: Basho’s frog pond
The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!
Here, we have kigo in the frog (a Spring season word). Spring is the time of rebirth and new life, but here, the frog jumps into an ‘old pond’. The sound is the surprise, full of life. The poem resonates as you can almost hear the sound as you finish the poem in your mind.
GET HELP
Search online via www.ecosia.org (Ecosia plants trees for online searches) for ‘haiku season words’ and take your pick from the results.
Or try this one for starters: https://yths.org/season-word-list/
LOOK AT OTHER EXAMPLES
Google ‘haiku examples’ and take your pick from the results.
Or try this one for starters: https://www.readpoetry.com/10-vivid-haikus-to-leave-you-breathless/
Notice how some examples, translated into English, won’t be in 5-7-5 17 syllables. Be free. Or be tight and stick to a strict 5-7-5 structure: it’s up to you.
More useful links:
https://www.callofthepage.org/the-pan-haiku-review (Free download Journals)
https://dversepoets.com/2020/07/30/mtb-haiku-sequence (Examples of Haiku in sequence
https://area17.blogspot.com/2016/03/575haiku-traditional-haiku-as-three.html (Traditional Haiku as three lines and in a 5-7-5 English language syllables pattern)
https://area17.blogspot.com/2015/10/british-haiku-english-haiku-poet-alan.html (British Haiku / English haiku poet Alan Summers)
Notes for submissions
Winners will be notified in January 2024.
We ask for original work for all submissions.
We want new, fresh work and not work previously published, online or in print.
Ideally, we would ask that you avoid dual submissions. However, we do recognise having poems tied up awaiting a decision can be difficult for poets. So, should a poem you have submitted to us be subsequently placed or published elsewhere, we should be notified immediately and the poem withdrawn.
Please be advised that all entries must be submitted in English.