How to Start a Haiku Contest

The following are questions to consider if you’re thinking of starting a haiku contest. Would it be free to enter, or for a small fee? Would there be monetary prizes, or some other prizes? If not funded by entry fees, how would prizes be funded? Would you award honourable mentions (and how many?) in addition to the typical three top prizes? How many poems could be entered per person? I would recommend at least two, so a poet could be conservative/traditional with one entry and wild/creative with the other. If it’s free to enter, allowing more than, say, three poems per person could easily overwhelm a judge or judges with too many poems. Would you want one judge or more than one? And would you specify the judging process or leave that to the judges?

I recommend using Google Forms to receive entries, which will automatically put everything into a spreadsheet and ensure that entries include all necessary information (name/location/email, etc.). In table format, the results are easy to anonymize for anonymous judging (remove the columns with each poet’s name/location, etc.). The form also means no one has to copy and paste entries from email into a separate file. If your contest charges a fee, you’ll have to figure out how to record or verify payments in conjunction with an online submission form.

Depending on the number of entries, you should allow four to six weeks for judging. Would you want judges to also write commentaries? That sweetens the reward a bit for the winners, and makes for more interesting content if you post the results online. Would you pay judges or ask them to volunteer? (In many haiku contests I know of, most are volunteers, but some do get paid, and I would recommend payment, which is standard for most nonhaiku poetry contests.) Might you make certificates for each of the winners? And would you mail signed physical copies, or email PDF versions instead?

Another question is whether you announce judges beforehand or keep that a secret to announce with the winners. I recommend announcing who the judges are when submission guidelines are announced, which honours the judges more (especially if you’re not paying them, and gives you more bang for your buck if you are paying them), and helps submitters tailor their submissions if they know anything about the judges and their preferences (it can be frustrating to submit particular kinds of poems where the judge is not announced, only to find out that you would have never submitted such poems if you had known who the judge was). Knowing who the judges are also enables submitters to avoid submitting to a contest where a possible conflict of interest might exist.

What will you do with the winning poems? This should be made clear to everyone who enters before they submit, such as displaying them in a public place, on a website, or on social media. Also think about the timing of when to submit, with time allotted for publicity, the submission window, time for judging, and time to prepare all the poems (for an installation or website) before the announcement is made. And if your contest is annual, when is the best time to announce or display the winners each year? If your contest is connected with something in nature, such as cherry blossoms or fall colours, or perhaps connected to an organizational fundraising effort at a particular time of year, that will guide you on when to schedule your contest.

You could publicize both submissions and results with various haiku organizations around the world, through their email lists, and on social media. If you were to formally collaborate with an established organization (if they agreed), their name would lend credence to your contest, and possibly also provide links to educational materials about haiku (haiku is too often taught only as syllable-counting, which ignores or obscures more important targets).

After the contest, be sure to think through what worked well, and what didn’t, and get feedback from the judges to see what would make their process easier. And be sure to thank the judges. When you announce winners, it’s also useful to share statistics, such as how many people submitted and how many poems they sent it, and list the countries or states/provinces the poems came from.

Getting good judges is important too, either one judge or perhaps a pair of judges that decide on the winners together. Established haiku organizations could suggest possible judges, or I could help. Listing the names and backgrounds of good judges with submission guidelines will help elevate expectations and the quality of submissions. Nevertheless, in nearly all contests I’ve judged over decades, typically about 90 percent of the poems are weak. Still, it’s worthwhile to have many participants take the opportunity to express themselves. Over time, as they see strong results (and commentary?), they will improve in their understanding and craft of haiku.

Whether your contest is a one-time event or something you might commit to annually for many years, you can help support a broader public understanding of haiku by offering in-person and online haiku workshops (I teach haiku regularly, myself) and create a web page with recommended reading and resource links. If it’s relevant to your contest, you could also offer in-person haiku walks to help support your contest and perhaps your organization.

In whatever way you proceed, I would hope your contest would consider at least three goals. One would be to promote your organization (and perhaps raise money for it). Another would be to promote a better understanding of haiku as a literary art. And a third goal would be to excite an audience with a passion for poetry and self-expression. With careful attention to various details, it’s possible to create and sustain meaningful and timely haiku contests for your target audience.