Awards & Contests

The inaugural Africa Haiku Prize, a project of the Africa Haiku Network, was awarded in 2020. The annual competition is open to Africans and non-Africans alike, with no restriction as to residence, nationality, or age.

In each issue throughout its six-year run, American Haiku, the first periodical outside Japan devoted entirely to haiku and senryu, awarded prizes to a number of poems chosen by the editors from subscribers’ submissions. Beginning with a contest in late 1962, the American Haiku Awards were the first regular competition for English-language haiku.

The Babishai Haiku Award was established in 2016 as part of the Babishai Poetry Festival based in Kampala, Uganda. Babishai was the first English-language haiku contest in Africa for African poets. Competitions have been held in 2016, 2017, and 2020.

The annual Betty Drevniok Award was established in 1998, in memory of Betty Drevniok, who served as secretary of the society from 1977 to 1979 and president from 1979 to 1982.

Begun in 2011, the European Top 100 is a listing of the most active and creative European haiku poets chosen by Polish poet Krzysztof Kokot and posted on the Web.