WHO ARE THE JUDGES?
Lee Murray Lee Murray ONZM is a multi-award-winning writer and a five-time Bram Stoker Awards® winner, including for poetry for Tortured Willows. A NZSA Honorary Literary Fellow, Lee is a Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow and winner of the NZSA Laura Solomon Cuba Press Prize for her narrative poetry collection Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud (The Cuba Press). Read more at leemurray.info
Lee will be the judge for the Open 18+ years category.
Scott Mason is the author of The Wonder Code: Discover the Way of Haiku and See the World with New Eyes, recipient of the Kirkus Star from Kirkus Reviews and the top book award from both The Haiku Foundation and the Haiku Society of America. (The Wonder Code can now be accessed for free from the Digital Library on the Foundation’s website.) A former editor with The Heron’s Nest, Scott currently serves on the board of The Haiku Foundation. His own haiku have placed first in more than two dozen international competitions.
Scott will the judge for the Haiku 18+ years category.
Josiah Morgan (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Maniapoto) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ōtautahi. His latest book i’m still growing is out with Dead Bird Books now in all good bookstores. His other books were all released in the United States, including his hybrid text, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was performed as a six-hour-long performance artwork in Auckland Pride 2024. He believes in magic and the power of words to transform.
Josiah will be the judge for the Open Junior 17 years and under category. This year, the theme is Music.
Jenny Fraser, New Zealand, primary and ESL teacher; fibre artist and founder of Riverweaver, a producer of designer hand weavings, featured in the permanent collection of the Waikato Museum; Celtic musician; and poet. Her haiku, tanka, haiga and haibun appear in international journals and anthologies. She has been honoured in several international haiku and haiga competitions, is on Haikupedia. Serves as tanka editor for the United Haiku and Tanka Society journal Cattails. Lives in Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Jenny will be the judge for the Haiku Junior 17 years or under category.
HOW DO I ENTER:
Entries will again be via Submittable.
Go to our website on March 15 to learn about the categories you can enter and how to use Submittable (it will be under the tab ‘Our News’).
WHAT IS THE COST TO ENTER?
The cost per poem to enter will be on Submittable.
WHERE ARE THE COMPETITION RULES & GUIDELINES?
When you submit your poem, the first thing you will see are the Rules & Guidelines. Please read them BEFORE entering.
WHEN DOES THE COMPETITION CLOSE?
May 31, 2025, midnight NZ time.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Throughout the competition, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
FB https://bit.ly/4dn4tpY
Insta https://bit.ly/477YL9n
WHO ARE THE 2025 ANTHOLOGY EDITORS?
We’ll announce our editors soon (yes, we have two!)