ukiaHaiku Festival: Ukiah, California's annual Haiku Contest

To enter, pick up a Haiku Submission Form at Grace Hudson Museum, Ukiah Branch Library, or download the forms from this site. You may also email* your submission; if you are entering category 9, you must still mail a check. Be sure the name on the check and the name on the poem submission match.

*[email instructions: Please send a separate email for each poem. Limit: 3 poems. The body of the email must include a) author name, b) email address, c) category to which you are submitting d) the poem, e) alternate/add'l contact information. Please make sure everything is included. email to ukiahaikufest09@yahoo.com. Remember to send your check separately to the address below.]

Categories:

1) General Topics, Children K-3 Grade
2) General Topics, Children 4-6 Grade
3) General Topics, Youth 7-9 Grade
4) General Topics, Youth 10-12 Grade
5) General Topics, Adult

6) Haiku about Ukiah, 18 & Under
7) Haiku about Ukiah, Adult
8) Contemporary Haiku, 18 & Under

9) Contemporary Haiku, Adult*

* To be judged by Jane Reichhold, author of Writing & Enjoying Haiku. The Adult Contemporary Haiku Category has a separate submission fee of $5 for up to three Haiku.

ukiaHaiku Festival is a juried event.

Winners in each category will be published and receive an award and/or gift. All entries will be on display on the day of the event.

Haiku definition: Haiku is an ancient unrhymed Japanese verse form generally set in three short lines containing a total of 10 to 17 syllables. The poem should contain a sentence fragment (one line) and a phrase (two lines that complete a thought). The fragment can be either the first line or the third line.

Haiku typically contains a reference to images of nature. It uses simple concrete images of things we can see, smell, taste, touch, or feel. Haiku avoids using abstract or figurative language, and making judgmental statements. The best Haiku poems reveal the essence of a thing so clearly that the reader can experience that particular momentary scene or insight which inspired the author. To keep the poem simple and direct, write in the present tense. Do not use capitalization, punctuation, or titles.

Traditional English Haiku have followed the form of five syllables used in the first line, followed by seven syllables for the middle line and five syllables for the third. However, Contemporary English Haiku do not use this traditional syllable count, and are therefore as brief as the poem needs to be while keeping to the fragment-phrase structure. In Contemporary English Haiku the middle line is typically longer in length that the first or third lines.

Please Note: both types of Haiku will be accepted for all categories except the “Contemporary Haiku, all topics, adult” and the “Traditional Haiku, all topics, adult” categories.