The Robert Spiess Memorial 2018 Haiku Awards Contest
Modern Haiku is pleased to announce the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards Competition for 2018. The purpose of this competition is to honor the life and work of Bob Spiess, editor of Modern Haiku from 1978 to his death on March 13, 2002.
Email entries will now be accepted as well as postal entries.
Theme: Haiku are to be written in the spirit of the following “Speculation” (Robert Spiess, A Year's Speculations on Haiku, Modern Haiku Press, 1995):
When haiku poets are truly stirred by a now-moment of awareness they respond with a simple, usually silent "Yes," not because they "understand," for that means the intellect is operating on the event- experience. This "Yes" is not one of considered approval but is prior to such an intellective judgment; it is an unqualified acceptance of the moment and its entities just as they are in their true nature at that particular and never to be repeated split second.
Deadline: In hand no later than March 13, 2018. Entry fee $1 per haiku. Awards: First Prize: First Prize: $100 plus a copy of The Turtle's Ears (1971, out of print; previous owner's name written on first page). Second Prize: $50 plus a signed copy of Bob's The Cottage of Wild Plum (1991, out of print); third Prize: $25 plus an inscribed copy of Bob's Some Sticks and Pebbles (2001, out of print). Up to five poets will be awarded Honorable Mentions and each will receive a copy of Bob's A Year's Speculations on Haiku (1995).