• Judit Katalin Hollós

    • February 28, 2023
    • Charles Trumbull

    Judit Katalin Hollós (born March 4, 1982, Budapest, Hungary), playwright, essayist, translator, journalist, and haiku poet. Graduated in playwriting and screenwriting; currently studying classical Tibetan language and literature. Her haikai, tanka, and other writings in English, Swedish, and Hungarian have been featured in international publications since 2014. Author of two chapbook collections. Listed among The European Top 100 most creative haiku authors for 2014, 2015, 2016, and nominated for The Touchstone Award for Individual Poems. Resides in Budapest.

  • Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards

    • February 26, 2023
    • Charles Trumbull

    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.

  • Maria Tomczak

    • Charles Trumbull

    Maria Tomczak (born July 25, 1984, Tychy, Poland, haiku poet, writer, and digital artist. Publishes haiku, haiga, and renku in international publications including The Mainichi, Cattails, DailyHaiku, The Heron’s Nest, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. Author of a haiku and senryu chapbook and a fantasy novel. Has won recognition in the Mainichi Contest, the Devidé Haiku Award, the Polish International Haiku Competition, and the Italian Matsuo Basho Award; has had two haiku shortlisted for the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems. Cofounder and editor of Wild Plum—a haiku journal (2015–2017). Resides in Opole, Poland.

  • Stacy Pendergrast

    • Charles Trumbull

    Stacy Pendergrast (born Stacy Mauree Pendergrast, September 8, 1958, Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A.; also writes as Brynne McAdoo, Stacy Mauree, and Mauree Pendergrast), educator, e-learning developer, memoirist, writer, and poet. Began composing haiku in 1992 and has been publishing in haiku and mainstream literary magazines, anthologies of the HSA, Spring Street Haiku Group, and Red Moon Press since 1994. Published two chapbooks. Resides in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

  • Ljuba Alexandrova

    • Charles Trumbull

    Ljuba Alexandrova (born Ljuba Alexandrova Popova [Bulgarian Cyrillic: Люба Александрова Попова] October 13, 1942, Radomir, Bulgaria), applied ecologist, poet, and haiku poet. Published eleven books, including three haiku collections, two in the Shopski dialect of southwestern Bulgaria. Member of the Bulgarian Haiku Union and the Union of Independent Writers. Has won awards in Haiku Club Sofia national contests and had work published in Bulgarian periodicals and bilingual anthologies. Resides in Sofia, Bulgaria.

  • Andrzej Dembończyk

    • Charles Trumbull

    Andrzej Dembończyk (born May 6, 1975, Zbrosławice, Poland), Polish economist, writer, and haiku poet. Cofounder of the Polish Haiku Association; won First Place in its Founding Meeting Haiku Contest and Third Prize in the Wild Plum Haiku Contest, 2020. Also won the 2020 Ewa Tomaszewska Poetry Award for the best Polish-language haiku. Regularly particiaptes in online kukai as well as the Asahi and Mainichi newspaper columns. Published two volumes of haiku, tanka, and haibun. Coeditor and co-selector for several anthologies. Resides in Zbrosławice, Poland.

  • Ernest Wit

    • Charles Trumbull

    Ernest Wit (haigō of a Polish poet born January 5, 1961, near Poznań, Poland), teacher, translator, editor, and lexicographer. Published in leading Polish and international print and online journals, almanacs, and kukai and included in several important anthologies. Author of three books of haiku and a coeditor of four annual almanacs of the Polish Haiku Association. Won recognition in Japanese, British, and American competitions and listed on the European Top 100 most creative haiku authors every year since 2010. Lives in a small town near Szczecin, Poland.

  • Irena Iris Szewczyk

    • Charles Trumbull

    Irena Iris Szewczyk (born July 16, 1966, Warsaw, Poland), philologist, photographer, and haiku and haiga poet. Active on online kukai and published in online and print publications and anthologies since 2011. Won recognition in international haiku contests, notably those of the HIA and Mainichi Daily News. Master Haiga Artist of the WHA. Published a bilingual book of poems, photographs, and haiga in 2022; blogs at Iris Haiku. Founding member and former board member of the Polish Haiku Association. Lives in Warsaw, Poland.

  • Wiesław Karliński

    • Charles Trumbull

    Wiesław Karliński (born June 25, 1950, Głuszyna, Poland), retired teacher and active translator, tourist guide, journalist, and haiku poet. Founder and board member of the Polish Haiku Association. His verses have been featured especially in online forums and internet kukai. Laureate of the 2021 Ewa Tomaszewska Poetry Award; received recognition in international haiku competitions, and listed eight times since 2013 among The European Top 100 most creative haiku authors. Lives in Namysłów, Poland.

  • Lech Szeglowski

    • Charles Trumbull

    Lech Szeglowski (born October 25, 1959, Gdańsk, Poland), Polish language teacher and homeschooler. Cofounded the Sopot Haiku Workshop and coedited Haiku Port: Magazyn literacko-artystyczny / Literary and Artistic Journal (2018–2019). Participant in the Shiki Internet Kukai (2007–2014) and contributor to a variety of international publications. Anthologized in Epstein’s Dreams Wander On and Ross’s, A Vast Sky. He has won awards in American, Canadian, and Japanese haiku contests. Participated in the International Haiku Festival in Ghent, Belgium (2010) and the WHA Conference in Tokyo (2015). Resides in Gdańsk, Poland.

Next