Haiku Competition
Submission Guidelines & Call for Entries

Start Date of Submissions: January 15, 2012

Postmark Deadline for Submissions: Friday, Mar 24, 2012

Festival Date: Sunday, April 29, 2012

Awards will be presented in the following eleven categories:

General Topics (Regional*)
   1) Children, grades K-3
   2) Children, grades 4-6
   3) Youth, grades 7-9
   4) Youth, grades 10-12
   5) Adults

Haiku about Ukiah (Regional*)
   6) Haiku about Ukiah, grades K-6
   7) Haiku about Ukiah, grades 7-12
   8) Dori Anderson Prize** — Haiku about Ukiah, Adults

Haiku en Español, Temas Generales (Sumisiones Regionales*)
   9) Para menores de 18 años
 10) Para mayores

International, General Topics, Adult:
  11) Jane Reichhold International Prize***

*Regional categories are open to residents of Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake, and Sonoma Counties in northern California. Submissions to regional categories are free of charge. Winners in the regional categories receive a certificate, publication in a booklet of winning haiku, and a copy of the booklet.

**The Dori Anderson Prize honors the memory of Dori Anderson, former head librarian of the Ukiah Branch Library, who originally suggested the idea of the ukiaHaiku festival. Dori served, with wit and wisdom, on the Poet Laureate Committee for many years.

***The Jane Reichhold International Prize is named in honor of internationally renowned haiku poet Jane Reichhold, author of Writing & Enjoying Haiku and other books. Jane has been a ukiaHaiku judge since the early years of the festival and has made a tremendous contribution to the festival in an advisory capacity. The Jane Reichhold International Prize Category has a separate submission fee of $5 for up to three haiku (submissions to all other categories are free of charge) and is open to submissions from the entire planet. Winners in the Jane Reichhold International Prize Category receive monetary awards: $100 first place, $50 second place, $25 third place, plus a certificate, publication in a booklet of winning haiku, and a copy of the booklet.

For a definition of haiku and examples on which judging criteria are based, please see our Resources page.

ukiahaiku Submission Guidelines

Please read these guidelines carefully. Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualified. Please note that we have a new regional focus for all categories except one, the Jane Reichhold International Prize, which is open to adults planet-wide. All other categories are open to residents of Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake, and Sonoma counties in northern California.

• Haiku submitted are to be previously unpublished original work by the author submitting.
• Entrants may submit up to three haiku per category. Each entrant, however, may win only one award per category.
• Submit using a Haiku Submission Form, available via PDF, at any Mendocino County Library branch at the Grace Hudson Museum (431 South Main Street, Ukiah). You may also submit online using the web form.
• If submitting on paper, send one form for each separate haiku. If submitting using the web form, send a separate form for each haiku.
• Submissions to the Jane Reichhold International Prize cost $5 for up to three haiku (submissions to all other categories are free of charge). Your payment should accompany your mailed submission (make check payable to the Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah).
• Haiku are judged anonymously. If submitting on paper, the Haiku Submission Form will be folded in half to allow anonymous judging. Your name MUST NOT appear on the half of the form with your haiku poem. If submitting via the online Haiku Web Submission Form, your submission will be printed out in such a way that it will ensure anonymous judging.
• Haiku must fit inside the box on the Haiku Submission Form.
• Please do not include a title.
• Please read the definitions of haiku in Resources for other judging criteria.
• Winners in each category will be published in a booklet.
• The Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah reserves the right to publish, either online or in print, any poems submitted to be festival for the purpose of promoting and supporting the Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah or the ukiaHaiku festival. Authors retain copyright to their work.
• The ukiaHaiku festival is a juried event. Judges are poets local to Mendocino County.
• Winners only will be notified of their placement. Entries will not be returned.
• Selected entries will be on display the day of the event.
• Current members of the Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah and ukiaHaiku judges are not eligible to submit haiku to the competition. Upon leaving their position, former committee members and judges must wait our one year's festival before becoming eligible to submit.

To enter the festival competition, pick up a Haiku Submission Form at Ukiah Branch Library (105 North Main Street, Ukiah), Grace Hudson Museum (431 South Main Street, Ukiah), or use a form from the website.

Mail submissions to:

ukiaHaiku festival
Post Office Box 865
Ukiah, California 95482

 

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