AFRICA HAIKU PRIZE 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.
BABISHAI HAIKU AWARD 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.
HAIKUNOW! INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST The HaikuNow! International Haiku Contest, administered in three categories: Traditional, Contemporary, and Innovative, ran for five years, from 2010 through 2014. Any poet could enter one poem in any or all of the categories each year, and there was no entry fee. Results were traditionally announced on April 17 as part of the celebration of first National, and later, International Haiku Poetry Day.
KAJI ASO STUDIO’S INTERNATIONAL HAIKU CONTEST 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.
Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards 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.