homeeditorsreviewsessaysmhbooks issues

 

Volume 37.1
Spring 2006

Robert Spiess Memorial
2006 Haiku Award Competition

Modern Haiku is pleased to announce the Robert Spiess Memorial Award Haiku Competition for 2006.

See the 2006 Award Winners!

Theme: Haiku are to be written in the spirit of the following “Speculation” (Robert Spiess, A Year’s Speculations on Haiku, Modern Haiku Press, 1995):

Juxtaposition of entities in haiku cannot be simply the throwing together of just anything; the poet must have the intuition that certain things, albeit of “opposite” characteristics, nonetheless have a resonance with each other that will evoke a revelation when they are juxtaposed in accordance with the time-tested canons and aesthetics of haiku.

Deadline: In hand no later than March 13, 2006.

Regulations: The competition is open to everyone but the staff of Modern Haiku, the competition coordinator, and the judges. Entries must be in English. Each entry must be the original, unpublished work of the author, and should not be under consideration in a contest or for publication elsewhere. For purposes of this competition, appearance of a haiku in an Internet journal or on a Web site is considered publication, but sharing of a haiku on an e-mail haiku list is not. Note, however: the judges will be instructed to disregard any entries that they have seen before. Of course, entries should not be shared on Web sites or haiku lists during the term of the competition.

Submission guidelines: Poets may submit a maximum of five haiku written in the spirit of the above Speculation. Submit three copies of each haiku, on 3H´´ x 5H´´cards or slips of paper. Entries should be typed or printed legibly. The haiku should appear on the face of each card (one haiku per card). The poet’s name, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address (if any) should appear on one of the three cards only, in the upper left-hand corner above the haiku; the other two copies should contain only the haiku. Please keep a copy of your submission; entries will not be returned. E-mail submissions are not allowed. Please follow the instructions carefully: entries that are incomplete or that do not comply with the instructions will be discarded.

Entry fee: $1.00 per haiku, cash or check (U.S. funds); make checks payable to Modern Haiku.

Send submissions to: Billie Wilson, 1170 Fritz Cove Road, Juneau, AK 99801-8501 USA.

Adjudication: Two judges will be selected by Modern Haiku; their names will be announced at the time of the awards. Judging will be double-blind, and the judges will not know the identity of the entrants. Judges’ decisions are final.

Selection criteria: The judges will look for entries that hew to Western norms for haiku as published in Modern Haiku and other leading English-language haiku journals (no rules as to syllable or line count, etc.) and that best capture the spirit of the theme Speculation above.

Awards: First Prize: $100.00 plus a signed, like-new copy of Bob’s first book, The Heron’s Legs (1966, out of print); Second Prize: $50.00 plus a copy of Bob’s The Shape of Water (1982); Third Prize: $25.00 plus a copy of Bob’s Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001). Up to five poets will be awarded Honorable Mentions and each will receive a copy of Bob’s A Year’s Speculations on Haiku (1995).

Notification: Winners will be notified by e-mail or phone before the general announcement. Winning entries will be published in the summer 2006 issue of Modern Haiku and will be posted on the Modern Haiku Web site, <https://www.modernhaiku.org/>, on July 1, 2006.

If you would like a list of the winners, please enclose a stamped, addressed business-sized envelope (SASE) with your entries. Overseas entrants should provide an addressed envelope and one IRC. These will be mailed when the summer issue of Modern Haiku is released.

 

© 2006 Modern Haiku • PO Box 1570 • Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459