The original BHS awards were established for haiku by and named in honor of American poet James W. Hackett, who underwrote the activity through royalties from his book sales and made the final choice of haiku. Contest results, together with judges’ commentary by J.W. Hackett, were published in the BHS newsletter and journal Blithe Spirit in the year following the contest. In 2010 the Hackett Awards were joined with the Society’s Tanka Awards and Haibun Anthology Awards and together renamed the British Haiku Society Awards. The haiku section of the competition was renamed in honor of David Cobb in 2020.