Go Bold HAIKU & HAIBUN Challenge 2024
The Girls’ Schools Association launches a Haiku & Haibun Writing Challenge for the 2024 Creative Writing Award.
Haiku is a traditional poetry form that dates back to the 17th Century. In the Girls’ Schools Association’s historical 150th anniversary year it felt fitting to challenge our girls to write using a unique form that captures a moment in time.
Award-winning poet Karen McCarthy Woolf will once again be this year’s competition judge, and she has created a fulsome explanation on how to write haiku and haibun poems in her unique prompts and explanation.
As Karen explains: “Haikus relate to what’s happening right now. They ask us to observe the world around us, and to distil it into a tiny, miniature poem. The most important thing to remember is that haiku are poems grounded in time and place. They are like a snapshot — think of it almost like a photo on Instagram or BeReal.”
Closing date for entries is 21 March 2024.
Submit your entry
Haiku & Haibun Resources
This year, the GSA competition will have two components. Younger students (Juniors) will write haiku, and the older students (Seniors) can choose between haiku and haibun.
Karen will personally read every work submitted (there is no sifting in our students’ competitions), and runners-up and winners will be eligible to feature in a unique historical Ltd. Edition anthology that Karen is editing ‘Triumph, Like a Girl’ Letters & Poems Celebrating 150 Years of the Girls’ Schools Association.
GSA will announce and celebrate the longlist, shortlist, and winners over its communications channels and three lucky winners will also be asked to visually record reading their poems which will be revealed and showcased to all our Heads and educational leaders at Summer Briefing this June.
GSA loves to give every girl the chance to speak up and speak out and Karen can’t wait to read every girl’s poem.
Submissions are now open – but only until 21 March 2024!
Read on for the competition rules and how to enter.
Competition Rules
- Follow the rules and regs for this small poetry form (these are carefully detailed in Karen’s Haiku resources.)
- Entries are free.
- Submissions are haikus or haibun only.
- All entries should be submitted in plain text via the form for individual entries or as Word documents if submitted by a teacher.
- Save any documents with name, poem title, school.
- Please include your name, age, and school on your submission form.
- Only one entry per pupil allowed.
- There are three age categories:
KS2 – Years 3 to 6 – most people will be aged 7-11 years
KS3 – Years 7 to 9 – most people will be aged 11-14
KS4 & KS5 – Years 10 to 13 (incl Sixth Form) – most people will be aged 14-18
Entries must be your own original work.
