The Garry Gay Rengay Award was added to the list of annual contests sponsored by the Haiku Society of America in 2020. Named after the inventor of the form, the HSA contest is only the second international-level competition for rengay.

The first international contest for rengay was inaugurated in 1995 by the Haiku Poets of Northern California. The contest has gone under a variety of names, originally the Haiku Poets of Northern California Rengay Contest, and currently the San Francisco International Rengay Contest.