Currently open haiku contests 10/1/25

Below is a list of contests for haiku and related forms. All are currently open as of this posting; each contest's deadline is listed before the contest link.

Symbols used:

$ = Monetary prize
$ = Entry fee
º = Limited submission eligibility; see publisher's guidelines
* = Contest host/sponsor claims all rights to submitted poems

And onto the contests:

- 10/13/25: Best Haiku Anthology Competition $ $

- 10/15/25: Penumbra Poetry and Haiku Contest $ $

- 10/30/25: Haunted Haiku Contest

- 10/31/25: Basho-an International English Haiku Competition

- 10/31/25: San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka $ $

- 1/31/26: San Francisco International Competition for Rengay $ $

- 1/31/26: Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition $ $

- 2/28/26: World Children's Haiku Contest - Regional Contest º *

- 5/1/26: San Francisco International Competition for Haibun $ $

Haiku market news, 5/23/22

UPDATE: The listings below are from May 2022. For current haiku market news, updated regularly, see this blog page: Haiku market news and deadlines.

Market news:

- Wales Haiku Journal: temporarily only accepting haiku

Current submission deadlines:

- 5/25: Failed Haiku

- 5/27: Take 5ive
- 5/31: kontinuum

- 5/31: Prune Juice

- 5/31: Presence

- 5/31: Noon: Journal of the Short Poem

- 5/31: tsuri-dōrō

- 5/31: contemporary haibun online

- 5/31: Rip-Roaring anthology

- 5/31: Kyoto Haiku Project

- 5/31: Dreamers Haiku Contest

- 5/31: Kiyoshi & Kiyoko Tokutomi Memorial Haiku Contest

- 5/31: Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest

- 5/31: Haiku Society of America Rengay Award in Honor of Garry Gay

- 5/31: New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition

- 5/31: Scarlet Dragonfly Journal
- 6/1: bottle rockets

- 6/1: Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational

- 6/1: Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards

- 6/7: Santoka international Haiku Contest
- 6/15: right hand pointing

- 6/15: White Enso

- 6/15: Sequestrum (haiku)

- 6/30: Yavanika Press (e-chapbooks)
- 6:30: Wales Haiku Journal

- 7/1: Kokako

- 7/15: bottle rockets press bird anthology

- 7/31: Basho's Haiku Journeys Haiku Contest
- 8/15: The Mamba
- 10/31: San Francisco International Competition for Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka
- 11/15: Under the Basho

Upcoming reading periods:

- #FemkuMag: June 1 to June 17
- Acorn: July 1 to Aug 31
- Akitsu Quarterly: July

- Bones: August
- cattails: July
- DailyHaiku: August
- Drifting Sands: June
- Echidna Tracks: October
- Fireflies' Light: August

- first frost: July

- Frameless Sky: Sept 15 to Oct 31
- Frogpond: July
- Kingfisher: August

- MacQueen's Quinterly: next reading period TBD
- Sonic Boom: Oct 1 to Oct 21

- Tandem: July
- Tanka Origins: June 15 to July 15

- The Bamboo Hut: Sept 1 to Sept 15

- The Cicada's Cry: Sept 1 to Sept 15

- the QuillS: Sept 1 to Oct 31
- Time Haiku: Aug 1 to Oct 31
- tinywords: August
- Trash Panda: Oct 1 to Oct 15
- Whiptail: July 1 to July 10 (themed: personal transitions)

Temporarily closed to submissions:

- American Tanka: on indefinite hiatus
- Pure Haiku: will reopen in June
- Skylark: taking a long hiatus
- World Haiku Review: currently closed

So many haiku contests...

 Haiku contest season is in full swing. The contests below are all free to enter:

- UHTS "AHA" Haiku/Senryu Contest: 1/31/21
- Filoli Haiku Competition: 1/31/21
- A Little Iris Haiku Contest: 1/31/21
- Myong Cha Son Haiku Award: 2/1/21 (open to undergraduates only)
- Maya Lyubenova Haiku Contest: 2/15/21
- ITO EN Shinhaiku Contest: 2/28/21

These contests have an entry fee, but they all offer cash prizes:

- Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar Competition 2021: 1/31/21
- British Haiku Society Awards: 1/31/21
- Martin Lucas Haiku Award: 1/31/21
- Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards Competition: 3/13/21
- Dreamers Haiku Contest: 5/31/21

Haiku contests

Some haiku contests ending soon:

• Basho-an International English Haiku Competition
  
  - Deadline: 11/10/20
  - No entry fee
  - Unpublished poems only
  - Wants 2- or 3-line haiku
  
  
• Writers Online Crime Poetry Competition
  
  - Deadline: 11/11/20
  - Prizes: £100, £50
  - Entry fee: £6 (£4 for subscribers)
  - Up to 40 lines
  - Wants crime-themed poems relating to Agatha Christie
  
  
• Polish International Haiku Competition
  
  - Deadline: 11/25/20
  - No entry fee
  - Unpublished poems only
  - 1 poem per person
  - Wants 5/7/5-patterned haiku, but "no strict syllable count"
  
  
• The Best Haiku Contest
  
  - Deadline: 11/30/20
  - Prize: $200
  - Entry fee: $9 for up to 4 haiku
  
  
• IHS International Haiku Competition
  
  - Deadline: 11/30/20
  - Prizes: Euro 150, Euro 50, Euro 30
  - Entry fee: Euro 3 ($4 US)
  - Unpublished poems only
  - 17 syllables or fewer
  
  
• British Haiku Society Awards
  
  - Deadline: 1/31/21
  - Prizes: £125, £50
  - Entry fee: £5.50 for up to 3 poems (£1.10 for each additional poem)
  - 3 categories: Haiku, Tanka, Haibun
  - Unpublished poems only
  - No simultaneous submissions
  
  
• A Little Iris Haiku Contest
  
  - Deadline: 1/31/21
  - No entry fee
  - Up to 3 unpublished poems
  - Has a nature/sustainability theme (see guidelines)
  

Haiku contests galore

Much of the world is cooped up at home, trying to adjust to these new coronavirus-inspired conditions. Things have changed greatly from even just a month or so ago. Fortunately, if you're a quarantined haiku poet, there's an abundance of open haiku contests.

Check the sidebar -- under "Contest Deadlines" -- for links to current haiku and related forms contests. As of  this post, most of the contests listed there are free to enter.

Two contests worth highlighting are the Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest (deadline 5/31/20) and the  Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Award (deadline 6/1/20), both of which are free to enter but offer cash prizes.

Be sure to read the contest guidelines and terms before submitting. Several of the contests will only accept 5-7-5 haiku, and a few of them require giving up publishing rights, even if your haiku doesn't win.

January haiku contest deadlines, other market news

Haiku poets have plenty of submission options this month. The following contests close in January:

Bloodroot Haiku Award: 1/12
     - $60 and $30 prizes
     - $5 entry fee for non-NCPS members
     - US postmark deadline: 1/6
     - Only 1 poem per category

Annual Betty Drevniok Award: 1/22
     - No cash prizes
     - No entry fee
     - Can read previous winning poems on the contest page
     - Up to 3 poems

UHTS “AHA” Haiku/Senryu Contest: 1/31
     - No cash prizes
     - No entry fee
     - Up to 10 poems

Snapshot Press 2020 Haiku Calendar Competition: 1/31
     - $600 in prize money divided among 12 winners
     - $15 entry fee for up to 4 haiku, or $30 for up to 12
     - Published poems OK

It has a deadline of February 1st, but the Utah State Poetry Society Contest has haiku and tanka categories. The haiku category is members-only, but the tanka category is open to anyone.

The Mamba Journal is reading submissions until January 15th. Skylark stops reading on February 1st.

For speculative writers, Space and Time closes to submissions tomorrow (January 2nd) and Freeze Frame Fiction closes on the 31st.

Haiku contest season

Haiku contest season is in full swing.  Eight haiku contests are currently accepting submissions, as well as a haibun contest and a renku contest.  There's a contest for speculative poets, too.  See the links on the right hand sidebar, under "Contest Deadlines," for links and dates.

Four current haiku contests

Four haiku contests with upcoming deadlines:

- Porad Haiku Award: deadline 9/20/18
- Johnny Baranski Memorial Haiku Contest: deadline 9/30/18
- IHS International Haiku Competition: deadline 11/30/18
- Autumn Moon Haiku Contest: deadline 10/31/18

For speculative poets, the SFPA Poetry Contest closes to submissions on 8/31/18.

Upcoming haiku contest deadlines

Plenty of haiku contests to submit to right now.  All of the contests below close within the next month and a half or so.

• 6/25/18  -  Sonic Boom Senryu Contest
• 6/30/18  -  7th Japan-Russia Haiku Contest
• 7/14/18  -  FSPA 2018 Poetry Contest (Category #15: LaVaughn Hess Memorial Award)
• 7/15/18  -  2018 Monostitch Haiku Competition
• 7/31/18  -  Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest
• 7/31/18  -  Gerald Brady Senryu Contest
• 8/1/18  -  Better Than Starbucks 2018 Haiku Contest