THE BRITISH HAIKU AWARDS 2014
Comprising the three categories: Haiku, Haibun and Tanka
Rules of the British Haiku Awards
1 Submissions must be in English, unpublished and not concurrently entered for any other competition, (and remaining unpublished until results are declared). There is no limit on the number of submissions per competitor.
2 Deadline: in the administrator's hands by 31 January, 2015.
Entries for different categories may be sent in the same envelope.
3 Entry procedures:
For haiku send each poem on three separate 5 x 3 inch. (125 x 75mm) cards (or paper cut to size). For tanka send each poem on two separate cards. On one of the copies write your name and address on the back. [+ Phone no. & email]
For haibun, send two copies of each haibun, each copy on a separate A4 sheet(s). On one copy include your name, address. [+ Phone no. & email] Haibun should be given a title, must contain at least one haiku and at least 100 words of prose, and must not exceed 2,500 words in length.
Enclose the appropriate fees (see below) and post to: The British Haiku Awards, 37 Holt Road, North Elmham, Norfolk, NR20 5JQ, UK. No entries will be returned, so do keep your own copies.
Non UK entries only may be sent by email and paid for via PayPal to lease note that the PayPal payment should be made in £ sterling (not $ etc.) and you should include an extra 10% to cover the PayPal transfer fee.
4 Fees: The entry fee for up to 3 haiku is £5 (or US$ 8) and £1 (US$ 1) per haiku thereafter. The fee for tanka works the same as for haiku, but haiku and tanka are separate categories (ie. no mixing for one fee). The fee for haibun is £5 (US$ 8) per entry. Cheques and money orders payable to: The British Haiku Society (N.B. not 'BHS'.)
Payment can only be accepted in sterling by cheque drawn on a bank with branches in the UK; or by British postal order or International Money Order; or (at the sender's risk) in sterling bank notes, dollar bills, or Euro bank notes at the current rate of exchange. (None have gone astray yet!) - Or by PayPal for overseas entrants (see above).
5 No current trustee of the British Haiku Society is eligible to enter.
6 Adjudication process: BHS will appoint two judges for haiku, one for haibun and one for tanka. Each judge sees all entries submitted in the category assigned to him/her, and without consulting, makes his/her independent choice of best haiku, haibun or tanka (and in the case of haiku and tanka, one runner-up also). Their choices will be final and no correspondence can be entered into about the results. It is possible for an entrant to win more than one prize.
7 Prizes: For haiku, prizes of £125 will be awarded to each of the two best and £50 to each of two runners-up. For tanka, there is a winner’s prize of £125 and a runner-up prize of £50. For haibun there will beone winner’s prize of £100 but at present there will be no runner-up prize. (With an increased number of entries in the future we hope to award a runner-up prize as well.)
8 Publication of results: As soon as results are known and the winners notified the results will be published, on the BHS website at All haiku and tanka selected for awards, along with the judges’ reports,will be published in the May 2015 issue of the BHS journal, Blithe Spirit. It is hoped the selected haibun may also appear in full in that issue, but as the length is unpredictable, for space reasons the journal editor will use his/her discretion about spreading publication over two issues, i.e. May and August 2015.
9 For early notification of results, please enclose a self-addressed envelope with appropriate UK stamp, or US$ 1, or two International Reply Coupons.
10 Copyright reverts to authors after publication in the British Haiku Society journal, Blithe Spirit, but entry for any category signifies agreement to your work being published digitally by the Society or copied for archival purposes (for example, by the British Library or the Poetry Library, London).
The Judges for the 2014 British Haiku Awards will be:
Tanka -Katherine Gallagher; Haibun -John Parsons; Haiku - Kim Richardson and Leo Lavery
For examples of previous winning Haiku and Haibun please visit: