MODERN HAIKU PRESENTS
2007 Robert Spiess Memorial Award Haiku Competition

Original Haiku Contest Notice from the Modern Haiku website.

Modern Haiku is pleased to announce the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition for 2007. This is the fifth annual competition to honor the life and work of Bob Spiess.

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):

If a haiku is to have life it must have rhythm or flow?—?for whatever life is, there is rhythm. Needless to say, this rhythm will seldom be a regular meter, but will be a rhythm or flow that is natural to the entities of the haiku and their particular relation. When the rhythm is proper to the haiku it simply will be felt in an aesthetic mode of "rightness."

Rules: 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 Each entry must be the original, unpublished work of the author and should not be under consideration in a contest or for publication elsewhere.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 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 3"??x??5" 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 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 plus a signed copy of The Turtle’s Ears (1971, out of print), inscribed by Bob to the previous owner; Second Prize: $50 plus a copy of Bob’s The Shape of Water (1982); Third Prize: $25 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 2007 issue of Modern Haiku and posted on the Modern Haiku Web site on or before July 1, 2007.

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.