With Words Haiku Contest 2009

With Words Haiku Contest 2009 is now open. Award winning writer Alan Summers will judge the entries anonymously. Alan has his own haiku blog at Area17 (LINK in sidebar).

Poet-in-Residence tip:-
Alan writes, and therefore probably likes, off-the-wall haiku like these:

lime quarter...
an ice cube collapses
over jazz

and

an attic window sill
a wasp curls
into its own dust

The contest aims to raise money for literature projects in developing countries; therefore there is a nominal charge for entries. Details of this worthwhile contest can be found at With Words (LINK in sidebar). Closing date for entries is 31st May 2009.

Is Poet-in-Residence already working on his batch of ten entries? You bet.

Alan Summers writes:
Hi Gwilym,
Many thanks for publicising the With Words haiku competition, it's very much appreciated by me.
I can also assure you that no one need only send off-the-wall haiku to win the competition.
When I judge competitions I set aside my own taste, and become as neutral as I possibly can.
Due to the fact that we had the same winning poet for 1st and 2nd prizes (John Barlow managed to do this with another competition recently too) we decided to have a third prize which was a tie. So we are in the luxurious place of having four winning examples of haiku up on the webpage.
It won't necessarily mean the same style could win again, I'm very open to a number of styles, but they are useful as good examples. I believe one or more of the winning entries have been recommended for a respected anthology series and if that is so, I am really chuffed!
As you can see from the long list we had a lot of poets that I felt sent in extremely good haiku, and they certainly varied in style!
So the competition is wide open!
All my very best, and thanks again for the plug!!!
Alan