Wednesday 31 January 2007

GUIDELINES














The R. H. Blyth Award


Invitation to The R. H. Blyth Award World Haiku Competition


You are cordially invited to participate in the above competition. The guidelines are pasted below.


The deadline for the Competition is Sunday 30 September 2007. It seeks the top quality and highest standards. I therefore look forward to receiving the very best of your finest works.

Kengin,

Susumu Takiguchi

Chairman

The World Haiku Club



HAIKU IN ENGLISH OR IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION COMPETITION


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GUIDELINES


[Category] Haiku poems in any form, style, subject or convention but rooted in tradition. Each poem will be judged on its own merit. Works showing originality, newness or something different will be preferred. You are free to add any explanation to each of your haiku, if you so wish.

[Language] English (Haiku written in any other languages must be translated into English. Please, therefore, aim at top-quality translation. Other languages will not be considered)

[Standards & Quality] Highest standards and quality will be sought in this competition.

[Eligibility & Copyright]Open to everybody in the world. Your works must be new, original, unpublished and not being considered elsewhere.
By submitting your works, you shall be deemed to have agreed to give permission that the works may be published in WHC’s announcement, publication or any other use which WHC deem fit. The copyrights shall revert to the authors once their works are published. Any work in breach of these requirements, or any other normal practice of international haiku contests, including those under WHC, which WHC deem reasonable, will be rejected and prizes awarded will be rescinded.

[Submission of Works and Fees]You can submit up to 10 haiku poems.
As already mentioned, they should be written in, or translated into, English. Type your works, your first names followed by your surname (with title, i.e. Mr, Mrs., Ms, Dr. etc), address, tel/fax, e-mail address, haiku pen name, if any, with a brief bio. How you lay your poems on paper may not necessarily be observed in the event of publication.

The fees are £ 5, or US$ 10, or Euro 8 or Yen 1,000 for the first three haiku (it will be the same if you submit only one or two haiku) and £ 1, US$ 2, Euro 2 or Yen 500 for each subsequent haiku. No other currencies will be accepted.

Payment in cash (sending banknotes by normal letter post) is the preferred method to avoid high bank commission costs (no problems have been experienced so far, but make sure to put the banknotes within at least two sheets of your folded letter paper) but this will be at the sender’s risk. Otherwise, obtain International Money Order in British pounds, or sterling cheque drawn at UK banks, payable to “World Haiku Festival”. (Please make the denomination in British pound sterling)

Send your works with your payment by snail mail to: The World Haiku Club HQ, Leys Farm, Rousham, Bicester, England OX25 4RA. In addition, send the same works also by e-mail to: susumu.takiguchi@btinternet.com

[Deadline] Sunday 30 September 2007 (Midnight your local time, or postmark).

[Announcement of the results] The results will be announced either on 28 October, the day of Blyth's death, or on 3 December, Blyth's birthday, or on another appropriate occasion. There will be the Award winner, two runners-up, and seven honourable mentions. The R. H. Blyth Award will be conferred to the Award winner only. No prize is considered for the rest of the best ten, except for the honour of it. The rest of the short-listed works will also be announced as Zatsuei (works of merit).

No individual enquiries regarding works submitted will be answered.

[Publication] The best ten and other short-listed works of merit will be published in World Haiku Review, the WHC’s world-wide comprehensive haiku magazine, and will also be widely shown via WHC's lists and other world-wide communication network.