Welcome to the British Haiku Society

	The James W Hackett Annual International Award for Haiku
	The Annual British Haiku Society Haibun Anthology (formerly The Nobuyuki Yuasa International Award)
	The Biennial Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai

The James W Hackett Annual International Award for Haiku

Winners of 2007 Awards

The two equal winning haiku for 2007, chosen respectively by James Hackett and David Cobb, are shown immediately below, together with the judges' general and winner-specific comments:

James W Hackett writes:

"While perusing this year's extensive short list, I was gratified by the many verses that reflect the intuitive acuity necessary for the perception of haiku moments. Impressive as well was the lack of first person usage that tends to preclude the reader. So bravo on both counts. Also, the fewer number of snapshot attempts was edifying, as was the recognition by some poets that brevity per se does not constitute a haiku in English!!

"I was especially taken by the haiku in which an emotive "trigger" was apparent. Such a causal stimulus is too often overlooked in haiku creation – be it surprise, irony, empathy, poignancy, or wonder.

"Haiku can also achieve a spiritual dimension through an empathic “That Art Thou” identification (often unconscious) between the poet and subject – as Basho came to recognize and ardently encouraged. This quality is suggested in several of the verses that I have highly commended.

"My choice for first place is

polarized light
the mixed melodies
of twilight birds

an'ya (USA)

"This subtly suggestive and well-crafted haiku is distinguished by an acute sensuous perception and superb word choice. The lovely ambient scene presents the keenly perceived similitude of evening's shifting light and the songs of birds. A very unusual juxtaposition, artfully communicated.

"As a result, I find the haiku very pleasurable to read (and envisage) again, and again. An extraordinarily sensitive and memorable haiku: one that is indeed worthy of the honorific of ‘haiku poem’. "

James Hackett

David Cobb comments:

“There was a longer ‘short list’ than in previous years; this reflected a particularly good crop of haiku and senryu entered in this contest. Almost inevitably, it was difficult in the final analysis – and perhaps a rather precarious thing – to pick one from my very final 8 as the overall winner. If that one had not been there, any of the runners-up would have been a worthy choice.

"What was I looking for? Something beyond ‘sketches from nature’, although there were a number of telling ones. Something that had strong feeling. Something that avoided any hint of a message. Something that had universal rather than, or as well as, personal resonance. Something that made effective use of disjunction. And I was inclined to disallow anything that, however well it was executed, seemed to me rather familiar – I actually found a few that were almost clones of ‘successful’ haiku we all know (they did not get anywhere near the final 8.)

"Each time I read through the list (and there were many reads) I was struck forcibly by one word: utterly. It takes intuition – or inspiration, if you will – to know when to use a word like that. I saw also the skilful contrast between the (I think conscious) choice of stark words arranged in a brutal rhythm in line one, and the more graceful wording of line two. In tandem, these two lines encapsulated for me the violation of natural beauty by man, and so …

"my overall winner has to be

car door clunk
a shell of fresh snow
falls utterly away

Scott Mason (USA)

"This is an artist's haiku."

David Cobb

The overall winners each receive £70 and a year's subscription to the British Haiku Society's journal Blithe Spirit.

The adjudicators found the following haiku highly commendable (in no particular order):

James Hackett's choices:

   midges twist
   in and out of sunlight
   the bittern's neck

   John Barlow (Eng)

   her fingertip
   follows the name of the brother
   who didn't return

   André Surridge (NZ)

   Normandy sunset—
   a steeple quivers
   in the red-tinged bay

   Scott Mason (USA)

   sunrise -
   a goose on the river calling
   to geese in the sky

   Martin Lucas (Eng)

   Summer at last -
   cloud watching
   on my back

   Vin Godier (Wales)

   memorial -
   from her favourite vase
   the smell of fresh flowers

   Trevor Christie (Eng)

   old logging camp
   wagon tracks disappear
   into wildflowers

   Tony A Thompson (USA)

David Cobb's choices:

   backyard reverie
   the expanding cosmos
   of watermelon seeds

   Scott Mason (USA)

   windfall apples
   the softness
   of the pony's mouth

   Claire Knight (Eng)

   my late dad's effects -
   the startle when i find
   his heavy belt

   hanabi (USA)

"The first is a captivating picture of someone at leisure to ‘see a world in a grain of sand.’ The second artfully leads us towards one expectation – that the apples are soft (which of course they are) – only to tell us that the pony’s mouth is even softer. And the third catches us unawares – we don’t realise the possible significance of that ‘dull’ (but ambiguous) word ‘effects’ until we have read the whole, possibly not once but several times: what ‘effect’ might that belt have had at some time in the past, before it became an ‘effect’, to have such a strong effect once more when rediscovered?

"I would like to place 4 more haiku / senryu (again in no particular order) in the ‘Commended’ category:

   big city park
   passersby queuing
   to nose a lilac

   Scott Mason (USA)

   family bible
   a wisp of my baby hair
   in Revelation

   Ernesy J Berry (NZ)

   howling wind -
   an autumn note within
   the bamboo flute

   Kala Ramesh (India)

   Arctic meltwater -
   the white whales moulting
   in harmony

   Malcolm Williams (Eng)

Administrator’s Notes:

"As collator of the shortlists and judges’ comments I have an overview which is sometimes illuminating. This year I believe Scott Mason deserves extra congratulations, not only for winning and being represented a further three times above, which is remarkable in itself, but also for having no less than 11 out of 13 of his submitted poems chosen by the shortlist selectors. Clearly this indicates an admirable consistency of high quality.

"Last year’s increased number of entries was almost met again this year with 479 haiku submitted, (nine less than last year).

"The poets from England and the US weighed in with 60% and 15% respectively – almost identical to last year. Next came Scotland and Wales with 5% each, Ireland and New Zealand with 4%, Japan with 3%, and Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Nepal and Slovenia, with nearly 1% each."

David Steele

This contest was instituted in 1990, using an initial donation from James W Hackett, a well-known pioneer in the field of haiku writing. It has been held annually ever since, with James W Hackett himself choosing the winners (until 2006, when he shared the task with David Cobb).
Entrants for this award should be aware of the characteristics which the judges hold to be necessary in good haiku and which are exemplified by the 2007 winning and commended entries above. These may serve as a guide for those intending to enter the 2008 Award, details of which follow immediately.

Entry procedure for the 2008 James W Hackett International Haiku Award

Haiku must be original, in English, not previously published nor under consideration for publication or entered in any other competition.

Deadline: in hand by 30 November 2008.

Award: Two winning haiku will be chosen, each by a separate adjudicator (see below).
The winning authors will each receive a prize of £70 and …
One year’s free subscription to The British Haiku Society.
Winning and commended haiku will be published in Volume 19 no. 2 (June 2008) of Blithe Spirit
and here on the BHS website

Apart from publication connected with competition results, copyright is retained by the authors.

Each haiku must be printed or typed onto three separate 5 x 3 in (125 x 75 mm) sheets or cards.
Entrant's name and address to be on the back of only one sheet/card in each set of three.

Submissions to be sent by post to Hackett Award, Newton House, Holt Rd, North Elmham, Norfolk NR20 5JQ, UK.

An entry must be accompanied by the flat rate entry fee of £3.00 or US$6.00 for up to three haiku, and £1.00 or US$2.00 per haiku thereafter.
Cheques and Orders should be made payable to 'British Haiku Society'
Due to high currency and clearance charges, payment can only be accepted in Sterling by cheque drawn on a UK bank branch, by British Postal Order, in Sterling / US cash, or by Sterling International Money Order.
All BHS Committee Members are debarred from entry.
For notification of results, please enclose a self-addressed envelope with appropriate UK stamp, or two IRCs, (which must be stamped by the issuing office) or US$1.00 (so, US$7 in bills covers both entry fee and notification).

Adjudication: A shortlist will be prepared by a BHS sub-Committee from anonymous copies of the submissions.
James W Hackett and David Cobb will then each choose a winning poem and up to three commended poems.

James W Hackett needs no introduction to serious readers of haiku, but see his website: https://www.hacketthaiku.com which contains all of his haiku, zen poems, and other spiritually-focused writings. Included also are correspondence with Blyth and Henderson, paintings, calligraphy and photos.
David Cobb is a former President of the BHS and works to establish connections with haiku poets world wide. He gave the opening address at the Inaugural European Haiku Festival in Germany in 2005. The original BHS, James W Hackett Award grew out of correspondence between David Cobb and James Hackett in 1991.

BHS and James W Hackett regret they cannot enter into correspondence about the Hackett Award decisions and that entries cannot be returned.

The Annual British Haiku Society Haibun Anthology 2007

Entries are invited for this prestigious international event, the purpose of which is to help raise the quality and range of the haibun genre, which combines poetic prose and haiku.

Entry fee: £5.00 or US$8.00 for the first haibun entry, £2.00 or US$4.00 for every additional haibun.
Cheques and British Postal/International Money Orders should be made payable to 'British Haiku Society'
Due to high currency and clearance charges, payment can only be accepted in Sterling by cheque drawn on a UK bank branch, by British Postal Order, in Sterling / US cash, or by International Money Order.

Conditions of Entry: Open to all (except BHS Committee members and any others involved with the administration of the Anthology). Entries must be written in English, and between 100 and 2000 words long, including haiku. Work must be unpublished and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Each haibun should be given a title. Entries will not be returned, so please retain a copy of each submission for yourself. Copyright reverts to the author after publication in the Anthology. In the unlikely event of an insufficient quantity and/or quality of submissions, those that are received will be carried forward to the following year for consideration.

Submission details: Three copies of each haibun, with each copy starting on a separate A4 or US Letter sheet. One copy must show your name, postal address, telephone number (and e-mail address, if any). The other copies must carry nothing which identifies the author. If you require acknowledgement of receipt of your entry, please either request an e-mail acknowledgement or enclose a self-addressed envelope with appropriate UK stamp or an IRC (which must be stamped by the issuing office), or US$1.00 bill.
For postal notification of results, enclose a second sae with UK stamp, IRC or US dollar bill.

Address for entries: BHS Haibun Anthology, 95 Winns Avenue, London E17 5HD, UK.

Closing date: in hand by 1 August 2007

Assessment and Appraisal of entries: The process of assessment and appraisal will be undertaken by Colin Blundell (former editor of Blithe Spirit and haiku writer) and Graham High (haiku and haibun writer and editor of Blithe Spirit). They will select at least ten quality haibun for publication in the Anthology and will provide an explanation of, and commentary on, their selections. It is anticipated that the Anthology, whose title will be drawn from the selected haibun, will be published by Christmas 2007. The authors of all the selected haibun will receive a free copy of the Anthology.

The submissions chosen by David Cobb and Ken Jones (the adjudicators) for the first Annual British Haiku Society Haibun Anthology (2005, published in 2006) were as follows:

Prawns and the Moon, Gillian Drake (Wales)
Silent Storm, Lynn Edge (USA)
Coiled Wire, Jamie Edgecombe (England)
The Georgian Table, Jamie Edgecombe
Powder White, Jamie Edgecombe
Running, Graham High (England)
Table Turning, Graham High
Clouds, Graham High
Lost in Space, Jim Kacian (USA)
Expectations, Marianne Kiauta (Netherlands)
The Awakening, Marianne Kiauta
Sierra Nevada, Dru Philippou (USA)
... the soft watch is flesh; it is "cheese", Dru Philippou
Rite of Spring, Laurie Stoelting (USA)
Southern Crossing, Laurie Stoelting
A Place for Words, Laurie Stoelting
New Arrival, Bethany Sullivan (England)
Fron Goch, Jane Whittle (Wales)

The anthology is called Table Turning, and it is available from the BHS bookshop (click on the menu item at left or page bottom to view the Bookshop list and a printable order form), priced £5.

The Biennial Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai

The Sasakawa Prize for Original Contributions in the Field of Haikai was won in its final year by David Cobb, for his study of English Seasonal Images. David writes: "It's intended as a working document, in which I put forward a number of familiar words/concepts that might work for us as the accepted kigo do for the Japanese. Some of these are illustrated by haiku from a number of different British writers, and some are left blank for others to illustrate with the best examples they can find at any time in the future." David visited Japan and gave talks on the progress of his project in October 2004.