FLEETING WORDS TANKA CONTEST 2024

    Fleeting Words Tanka Contest

Deadline: Open from 1 May 2024 to 31 May 2024, results will be posted by the end of June 2024.

Sponsor: The United Haiku and Tanka Society.

Coordinator: Marilyn Humbert, Australia. 

Adjudication: an’ya, USA.

Eligibility: Open to everyone worldwide.

Awards: This contest is FREE for up to 10 entries, all rights remain with the tanka poets. Printable Award Certificates will be emailed to the winners for First, Second, Third, and one Honorable Mention. (see below).

Submit: Entries must be the author's original work, be unpublished and never posted publicly anywhere, and not under consideration elsewhere for the entire time it takes to complete the judging. This contest is un-themed, and open to all age groups worldwide, any season is acceptable, and there is no specific syllable requirement with the exception of a short, long, short, long, long rhythm written in 5 horizontal lines of text.

Contest Coordinator’s Note: “All entrants will be advised that I have received their entry, but if you haven’t heard from me within 7 days, please re-send.”, Marilyn Humbert

Entry Fee: None, it’s FREE

Guidelines: Use the subject heading FLEETING WORDS, and type each individual tanka in the body of your email; no attachments, please. Include your name, country, and email contact. Email your entries to mhumbert1953@ gmail dot com (no political, offensive, or inappropriate material).

Notification: ONLY the winners will be notified via email, (and if you have no email address available, (please provide a proxy email address.) If you do not hear anything from us by 15 June 2024 your entries are automatically free to submit elsewhere. Entries that do not follow these guidelines will not be considered, so please read very carefully.

Publication: The winning tanka will be featured in late June 2024 on the UHTS website along with the judges' commentary. Thank you for participating and good luck to all.

             

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AHA Contest 2024 Results:

Again, it has been an honour to convene the 2024 Hortensia Anderson Haiku Awards (aha). A Total of 1124 entries received from across the globe including the following countries Azerbaijan,Australia, Belgium, Bharat, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Ghana, Greenland, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy. Jamaica, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mexico, Nepal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Scotland,Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, The Philippines, Turkey, UK, USA. A special thank you to friends on social media who distributed our competition flyer via Facebook pages and posted our competition details on their personal Web pages. It has been a pleasure to work with an’ya and the contest judge peterB.- Marilyn Humbert, Contest Coordinator

Judges Comments by peterB

Out of so many entries, this First Place haiku entered by Brad Bennett, I liked immediately. What grabbed my attention was that it ‘shows” us a happening without specifically “telling” us what actually created it. On a dark night, wind, rain and the tides steal the mornings clues, but with a calm bright overnight, we can now see two sets of flipper marks, going “from the sea and back” making this old sea turtle ritual easy to recall. 

FIRST PLACE

moonrise...

flipper marks from the sea  

and back

Brad Bennett

USA

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What’s an ice flower? One is an actual “plant” the other a near-arctic nature phenomena. Window panes turn moisture into bizarre ice patterns, and empty window frames can have true “frost weed” that obscures the empty portal with frosty ice designs…you may have seen it and just never thought to write about it in juxtaposition with “lace curtains”.

SECOND PLACE

ice flowers –

the abandoned house 

has lace curtains

Ana Drobot

Romania

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In this Third Place haiku,  a falling star episode certainly excites the senses, and breaks the visuals of an “orderly sky”. It also presents quite a unique perspective to a commonplace event. Thanks to the author for submitting this entry.

THIRD PLACE

sudden relief

from an orderly sky

falling star

Lisa Anne Johnson

USA

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HONORABLE MENTION

Fresh hay lying where cut, or on the barn floor after stacking, is both a great feedlot and playground for all the creatures; common sights like this are universal, memorable, and kitten-cute.

fresh hay  –

kittens figure-eighting

the mare's legs

Julie Schwerin

USA

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