Deadline

Entries should be emailed or postmarked by January 31, 2025.

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Awards

£400/US $600 total prize money.

12 haiku will be selected as monthly winners and will be published prominently in The Haiku Calendar 2026. The prize money will be divided equally between the 12 winners. 40 additional haiku will be selected as runners-up and these will also be published in the calendar.

Entrants may win more than one prize.

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Your work

Haiku may be free-form or 5-7-5 and must be the original work of the entrant.

Haiku may be published or unpublished, though haiku previously published by Snapshot Press, or accepted for a publication forthcoming from the press, are not eligible.

Any number of haiku may be entered.

Entries may be sent by email or post.

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Email entries

  1. Email entries should be sent to calcomp AT snapshotpress.co.uk with “THCC entry” in the subject line. (This will happen automatically if you click on the email link above.)

  2. In the body of the email please include your name, address, and email address.

  3. If you would prefer to be published under a pen name, or for your name to appear in a distinctive fashion (e.g. all lower-case letters), please also note this prominently in the email.

  4. Please also indicate how your entry fee has been, or will be, paid. This might be your PayPal Transaction ID (as proof of advance payment); the email address that will be associated with your online payment (if you send the entry first); or a postal payment.

  5. Haiku should be submitted under your details and numbered consecutively.

  6. Each haiku must be assigned to a single month. Below each haiku please note the month to which it is assigned.

  7. Haiku will be copied and pasted before judging to retain anonymity.

  8. Any number of email entries may be sent.

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Postal entries

  1. Haiku should be printed or written legibly on a sheet of paper and numbered consecutively. Your name should not appear on this entry sheet. (Additional sheets can be used as required.)

  2. Each haiku must be assigned to a single month. Below each haiku please note the month to which it is assigned.

  3. The first line of each haiku entered, along with the corresponding month, should be recorded on a separate cover sheet. (No entry form is necessary, though one is available in pdf format here if required.)

  4. Your name, address, and email address (if you have one) should be recorded on this cover sheet only.

  5. If you would prefer to be published under a pen name, or for your name to appear in a distinctive fashion (e.g. all lower-case letters), please also note this prominently on the cover sheet.

  6. Please also indicate how your entry fee has been paid. This might be your PayPal Transaction ID (as proof of advance online payment), or an enclosed postal payment.

  7. Please mail your entries to:
    Snapshot Press, Orchard House, High Lane, Ormskirk, L40 7SL, United Kingdom.

  8. Overseas (non-UK) entries mailed in the month up to and including the closing date must be sent by airmail.

  9. If you would like confirmation of the results please enclose an SAE (with 2 IRCs or 2 $1 bills internationally) marked “THCC Results”.

  10. Any number of postal entries may be sent.

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Entry fees

The entry fees for The Haiku Calendar Competition are:

£10/US $15 for up to 4 haiku;

£20/US $30 for up to 12 haiku.

The entry fee (for both email and postal entries) may be paid online below or sent by mail.

To pay online using a credit or debit card (or an existing PayPal account), please click on the appropriate “Add to Cart” button below and following the checkout instructions.

You may enter more than 12 haiku in one entry. For example, if you wish to enter 15 haiku please add “Up to 12 haiku” to the cart, then click “continue shopping” and add “Up to 4 haiku” in the same currency before proceeding to checkout.

Up to 12 haiku (£20):

Up to 12 haiku (US $30):

Up to 4 haiku (£10):

Up to 4 haiku (US $15):

Alternatively, the entry fee may be sent by post. Please note that we can only accept cheques, postal orders and money orders in sterling (made payable to Snapshot Press); sterling banknotes; US dollar bills; or Euro banknotes at the same rate as US dollars. No other forms of payment will be accepted. (Unfortunately, we are no longer able to process US dollar checks or international money orders.)

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Correspondence

Confirmation of receipt will be sent to your email address once both your entry and your entry fee have been received and processed.

Entry sheets and emails cannot be returned—please keep copies of your work.

The decision of the adjudicator is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

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Results

The results will be announced on this website on March 31, 2025.

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The Haiku Calendar

The Haiku Calendar 2026 will be published by Snapshot Press in 2025. Copies can be ordered in advance at £12 UK; £17/US $24 Overseas (post-paid). Postal entrants may enclose payment and state number of copies ordered on the entry sheet. Alternatively copies can be ordered in advance by credit or debit card (or an existing PayPal account) via the appropriate “Add To Cart” buttons below.

The Haiku Calendar 2026
for delivery in the UK only (£12):

The Haiku Calendar 2026
for delivery outside the UK (£17):

The Haiku Calendar 2026
for delivery outside the UK (US $24):

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Seasonal guidelines

Haiku might ideally include a seasonal aspect (which may or may not be an established “season word” or kigo). This may be a direct reference to a specific day, month or season (e.g. New Year’s Day, June, winter), or to a phenomenon or activity associated with a particular season.

Seasonality should ideally align with the traditional consideration that the equinoxes and solstices occur at the midpoints of their respective seasons. (So, for example, early February is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, but mid-late February is spring. So a February haiku might be concerned with winter or spring; a May haiku with either spring or summer; an August haiku with either summer or autumn; and a November haiku with either autumn or winter.)

Entrants from the Southern Hemisphere are advised to transpose certain composition dates by six months.

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Rights

All rights revert to the authors upon publication.

No liability for breach of copyright, or any rights or license, will be accepted by Snapshot Press for the use of work entered into this contest. (Please note that previous publication credits unfortunately cannot be included in the calendar. If this is likely to be an issue please do not enter previously published work. You may note previous publication credits when entering previously published work at your discretion, but there is no need to do so and no consideration of publication history will be taken into account in the adjudication.)

Entry in the competition is deemed to be acceptance of these terms and conditions.

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Adjudicator

John Barlow is the editor of The Haiku Calendar, which has appeared annually since the 2000 edition, and co-editor (with Martin Lucas) of The New Haiku (2002). His other books include Waiting for the Seventh Wave and Wing Beats: British Birds in Haiku (with Matthew Paul). His haiku have received more than 150 awards, while works he has edited have been honoured by the Haiku Society of America, the Poetry Society of America, and The Haiku Foundation.

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