Awards & Contests

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.

The annual Polish International Haiku Competition was inaugurated in 2011. It was organized for the first four years by Rafał Zabratyński, and in 2016, the recently formed Polish Haiku Association (Polskie Stowarzyszenie Haiku) took over administration of the competition. Poets worldwide are invited to submit one classically structured, original, and unpublished haiku in English. The judges award book prizes for first, second, and third place haiku and certificates for up to ten commendations.

Haiku Canada established this biennial competition in 2021 in honor of André Duhaime, a pioneer of francophone haiku in Canada. The contest is open to French-speaking or bilingual members of Haiku Canada. Two categories are recognized: the best book in French and the best chapbook in French, although the inaugural contest awarded prizes only to books. (Note: this Haikupedia article is in French.)

Le prix annuel Jocelyne-Villeneuve du haïku francophone a été créé en 2012 par Haiku Canada à la mémoire de la poète canadienne-française pionnière Jocelyne Villeneuve (1941–1998). —— The annual Prix Jocelyne-Villeneuve for francophone haiku was established in 2012 by Haiku Canada in memory of pioneering French Canadian poet Jocelyne Villeneuve (1941–1998).

This annual haiku competition was launched in 2003 in memory of longtime Modern Haiku editor Robert Spiess, who died in 2002. Each year one of Spiess’s “Speculations” is selected as a theme. Poets may submit up to five haiku. Typically three prizes and as many as five honorable mentions are chosen double-blind by one or two judges. In recent years the competition has drawn as many as 577 entries. Results, including the judges’ commentaries, are published in the summer issue of Modern Haiku following the contest.