Awards & Contests

Japan Air Lines sponsored a haiku contest for poets in the United States in 1964. This was the first and by far the largest competition outside Japan; some 41,000 entries were received in 17 contests arranged by local radio stations. Prominent Zen specialist Alan Watts was the contest judge. Watts selected one National Winner and eighty-three semifinalists, whose winning haiku were published by JAL in a booklet, Haiku ’64. The 1964 JAL contest is commonly believed to have been the catalytic event in American haiku.

The Kaji Aso Studio and Institute for the Arts in Boston was founded in 1973 and serves as a center for the study of Japanese graphic and plastic arts as well as literature and poetry. The Boston Haiku Society first met at the studio in 1987, and the Kaji Aso Studio’s International Haiku Contest has been based there annually since 1988.

Haiku Canada established this biennial competition in 2020 in memory of Marianne Bluger (1945–2005), past member and officer of the society. The contest is open to Canadian and non-Canadian members of Haiku Canada. Two categories are recognized: the best book in English and the best chapbook in English.

The annual Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest, based in the United States, was inaugurated in 2018 as a feature of #FemkuMag: an e-zine of haikai poetry by womxn and non-binary folkx and conducted by Lithica Ann (deadname: Lori A Minor), its founding editor. The contest commemorates the work of Marlene Mountain (1939–2018), a pioneering artist and haikai poet known for her innovative political and feminist poems, particularly one-line haiku (monoku).

The annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards were inaugurated in 2013 under the aegis of The Heron’s Nest haiku journal in memory of Peggy Willis Lyles (1939–2010), leading American haiku poet and associate editor of The Heron’s Nest from 2002 through 2010. The Lyles Awards were immediately established as one of the most popular and competitive contests for English-language haiku, attracting 1,500–2,000 entries a year until 2020, when the number jumped over 2,200. Regulations for submissions and reports of contest winners as well as the judges’ comments are archived on The Heron’s Nest website.