|
Haiku Activities & Events
The World Haiku Club, through its
mailing lists and regional efforts, has hosted multiple events since its
inception.
Festivals, workshops, and kukai
(contests) have been held, friendships made, educational seminars made
available, and a variety of discussion forums instituted through the YahooGroups
mailing lists server. In addition, members and online users may enjoy WHC's
magazine, the World
Haiku Review, in which archived issues remain online as valuable resources
to poets of haiku and related genres. Japanese haiku poets will enjoy
learning to write haiku in English through WHC's eigohaiku
lesson site on ALC.
For the most recent WHC activities
and announcements, see the latest issue of World
Haiku Review.
Announcements of current and
upcoming activities will be made through WHCnewsletter,
at YahooGroups, as well as to selected WHC
mailing lists.
For a retrospective of
the earlier activities of WHC click here to visit the
WHC ARCHIVES
ANNOUNCEMENT
SENRYU IN
ENGLISH COMPETITION
R. H. Blyth Award 2003
[WHC]
"My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's
the funniest joke in the world."
.................George
Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, John Bull's Other Island (1907)
Dear Senryu Lovers
of the World,
Like many other things, GBS put in the best way what I want to say, this time
about the R. H. Blyth Award 2003: Senryu.
One man's "sense of humour" is another man's poison and humour seldom
crosses national, cultural and linguistic barriers. However, when we are in
difficulty why not ask the great man himself, Blyth?
"... 'Humour' means joyful, unsentimental pathos that arises from the
paradox inherent in the nature of things...Poetry and humour are thus very
close; we may say that they are two different aspects of the same thing...Humour
is laughing at all things; in Buddhist parlance, seeing that 'all things are
empty in their self-nature', and rejoicing in this truth...senryu, like Cassius,
'look quite through the deeds of men'...A really good senryu [...], echoing in
the mind 'long after it is heard no more.'..." ....(Randomly
quoted, in a most unacademic manner, from his 'Japanese Life and Character in
Senryu')
"...I now think [...] that humour, in its broadest meaning, and as
including or rather suffusing poetry, is the real thing...".......
(From the preface to 'Humour
in English Literature', 1959)
His classification of different kinds of humour in senryu is one of the best.
There can be more kinds added (e.g. current topics humour or satire, lavatory or
bawdy humour) but for this competition the Blyth list should be an adequate help
(They should be fairly obvious but for detailed explanation read the book
itself):
1. Grim Humour
2. Tragic Humour
3. Irony
4. Linguistic Humour
5. Kindly Humour
6. Shakespearean Humour
7. Humour of Exposed Pretence
8. Humour of Indirectness
9. The Humour of Stupidity
10. Parody
This year's R. H. Blyth Award is devoted to senryu but not in
the sense it is practiced outside Japan. The details of this important
competition will follow. It is a serious attempt with potentially widespread
influence but conducted in a humorous manner. For those who may not know exactly
what is required, a kind of pathfinder is pasted at the end, though what is
mentioned there is not a definitive condition of the contest. Respond to the
Blyth Award challenge now with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eyes,
since after all wit is the soul of brevity, i.e. life. Enjoy. I mean both
life and senryu!
Guidelines:
Overview:
R. H. Blyth's appreciation of Eastern sense of humour, particularly that of
Japan, was profound. The essence of Japanese senryu is this sense of humour.
This year the World Haiku Club presents senryu as the chosen field of the R. H.
Blyth Award.
Category: Senryu but not according to any definitions which are
postulated outside Japan. Those works which follow them will not be considered.
The main feature must be humour in all its manifestations. There is no
particular restrictions as to form, style, subject matter or any other
conventions so long as humour is the main thing.
Standards & Quality: Highest standards and quality will be sought in
this Competition.
Language: English (senryu written in any other languages must be
translated into English. Please, therefore, aim at top-quality translation.
Other languages will not be considered)
Eligibility: Open to everybody in the world. Your works must be new,
original, unpublished and not being considered elsewhere. By submitting them,
you shall be deemed to have agreed to give permission that the works may be
published in the announcement, publication or any other use which WHC deem fit,
including World Haiku Review. The copyrights shall revert to the authors once
their works are published. Any work in breach of these requirements, or of any
other normal practice of international haiku contests, including those under
WHC, which the organisers deem reasonable, will be rejected and prizes awarded
will be rescinded.
Submission of Works and Fees: You can submit up to 10 senryu. The fees
are ? 5, US$ 8, Euro 8 or Yen 1,000 for the first three senryu (it will be
the same if you submit only one or two senryu) and additional: 1, US$ 2, Euro 2
or Yen 500 for each subsequent senryu. No other currencies will be accepted.
(e.g. in US$, 10 senryu would be: $8 for the first 3 plus $2 x 7 = $14, making
the total fees $ 22)
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)
Type your works, your first names, your SURNAME (in capital letters),
address, tel/fax, e-mail address, haiku pen name, if any, with a brief bio.
If you add a brief account about each senryu, that would be useful. (How you
lay your poems on paper may not necessarily be observed in the event of
publication for technical reasons.)
Send your works with your payment by snail mail to: Headquarters, The World
Haiku Club, Leys Farm, Rousham, Bicester, England OX25 4RA. In addition,
send the same works also by e-mail to: WHC.takiguchi@susumu.freeserve.co.uk
Deadline: to
reach us by Sunday 31 August 2003
Judges: TBA
Announcement of the result: 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 occasion if and when it arises. There will be the winner, two
runners-up, and seven honourable mentions. No individual enquiries regarding
works submitted will be answered.
Award: The R. H. Blyth Award will be conferred to the winner. No prize is
considered at the moment for the rest of the best ten, except for the honour of
selection.
Publication: The best ten and some other 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 communication network.
***
A PATHFINDER FOR
THE R. H. BLYTH AWARD 2003-SENRYU
1)
The broadest framework is "humour" in the broadest sense, or in all
senses.
"..., the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world
in the best chosen language." (Northanger Abbey, ch. 5, Jane Austen 1775 -
1817)
2) The FORM can be based on that of existing haiku or senryu, only freer.
Broadly, it should be "brief" and have some kind of "rhythm"
and "style";
3) The intention is to make someone smile/laugh in various ways;
4) It could be roughly divided into (a) good, elegant and sophisticated humour;
(b) low humour; (c) ridicule and mockery, i.e. poignant humour. In each, there
can be brilliant senryu or bad ones.
(a) good, elegant and sophisticated humour: witticism, stroke of wit, jeu
d'esprit, sally, bon mot, epigram, pun, punning, play upon words, banter,
sophistry, all said in a refined, sophisticated and subtle way;
(b) low humour: joke, low joke, broad jest, facetiousness, jocularity, jocosity,
jocularity, vis comica, trifling, flippancy, tom-foolery, slapstick, fun,
frivolity;
(c) ridicule and mockery: derision, poking fun, mockery, self-mockery, biting
wit, cruel humour, satire, scoffing, flippancy, sniggering, crank, quirk,
banter, leg-pulling, chaff, buffoonery, clowning, foolery, irony, sarcasm,
barbed shaft, backhanded compliment, caricature; "Ridicule is the only
honourable weapon we have left." (The Desegregation of Art, 1971, by Muriel
Spark (1918 - )
5) SUBJECT MATTER (anything that causes laughter)
1) Human beings: ourselves, others, people, politicians, men in authority;
2) Human behaviours, phenomena and institutions: societies, communities, nation,
establishments, tradition and practice etc., etc.;
3) Nature: animal kingdom, natural phenomena
4) Just about anything else where humour is found
Announcement:
The Takashi
Hoshino Award at WHC
The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce the creation of a new haiku-related
award, called "The Takashi Hoshino Award" at WHC. This follows The R.
H. Blyth Award as being among a number of high-standard awards which WHC will be
introducing and will aim at becoming one of the most prestigious and important
haiku-related awards in the world. The Takashi Hoshino Award will be
administered only occasionally.
Takashi, great grand-son of Kyoshi, is a leading Japanese haiku master of the
Tamamo School, Editor of the magazine of the same name and a director of the
Kamakura Kyoshi & Tatsuko Memorial Museum. He is the master at WHCtakashi.
It is hoped that as many haijin in the world as possible will try their hand on
this new competition which aims at significantly high standards, style and
quality on a world-wide basis and make their own mark in this very challenging
tournament.
The guidelines of the first Takashi Hoshino Award are set out below. Good luck!
From Susumu Takiguchi
14th July 2003
GUIDELINES FOR
THE FIRST TAKASHI HOSHINO AWARD 2003
Overview: A new world haiku award created by The World Haiku Club,
following The R. H. Blyth Award, in the name of a leading Japanese master of the
Tamamo School. Highest standards and quality will be sought in this Competition.
No restrictions as to form, style, subject matter etc., at this time. However,
kigo and/or nature references would be preferable and applicants should have
some basic training in the traditional haiku. The Award will be only occasional.
Language: English (works written in any other languages must be
translated into English. Therefore, aim at top-quality translation)
Eligibility: Open to everybody in the world. Works must be new, original,
unpublished and not being considered elsewhere. By submitting them, you shall be
deemed to have agreed to give permission that the works may be published in the
announcement, publication or any other use which WHC deem fit, including the
World Haiku Review. 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 the
organisers deem reasonable, will be rejected and prizes awarded will be
rescinded. In addition, works posted to WHCtakashi will also be considered
(Poets will be contacted if their
works are chosen for final selection to confirm their wish as to whether or
not to enter these works).
How to Submit Works and Fees: No fees unless and until otherwise decided.
You can submit up to 10 haiku poems. Type your works, your first names, your
SURNAME (in capital letters), address, telephone/fax, e-mail address, haiku pen
name, if any, with a brief bio. If you add a brief account about each work, that
would be useful. (How you lay your poems on paper may not necessarily be
observed in the event of publication for technical reasons.)
Send your works by e-mail to:
WHC.takiguchi@susumu.freeserve.co.uk
Deadline: to
reach us by Thursday 25th September 2003
Judges: TBD
Announcement of the result: The results will be announced in November
2003 (exact date to be decided) There will be the winner, two runners-up, and
seven honourable mentions. No individual enquiries regarding works submitted
will be answered.
Award: The Takashi Hoshino Award will be conferred to the winner. No
prize is
considered at the moment for the rest of the best ten, except for the honour
of selection.
Important
Announcement:
World Haiku Festival
in Holland
12-14 September 2003
The World Haiku
Club is pleased to announce World Haiku Festival in Holland, which will take
place in Leeuwarden, Provincie Friesland, the Netherlands from Friday 12 to
Sunday 14 September 2003. During the three-day event, twenty performing
participants and Festival guests will meet each other and the general public, as
well as other poets who will attend the Festival, in this beautiful city of
leafy streets, rich waterways and bicycles.
Haiku
has been popular in the Netherlands, especially since around early 1970s and the
haiku population is significant in number. The country has recently celebrated
the 400 years of Japanese-Dutch relationship which started with the Dutch ship
Liefde (love). The Liefde, though shipwrecked, managed to get Dutch people (and
the first Englishman to set foot on Japan, William Adams) to this island of the
rising sun. The international nature of the haiku movement in this country is
also a significant feature as represented by the well-loved and respected
magazine, Woodpecker, which sadly had its last issue in the autumn of 2002.
The
first day (Friday) of haiku poets’ meeting and socialisation will be followed
by a public haiku event on Saturday at the City’s central park when the
general public will enjoy haiku reading, music, talks on haiku and personal
views and experiences by performing participants. The third day will be again
for haiku poets alone, who will visit a local museum and have a debating
session, as well as an optional sightseeing.
All
those who really wish to enjoy only the sheer pleasure of haiku and the
wonderful things it can do to our lives and relationships without indulging in
petty and negative haiku politics are most welcome to attend World Haiku
Festival in Holland.
For
further details, please contact me or Mr. Milivoj Objedovic, WHC’s Director of
World Haiku Festival in Holland, at the addresses below.
Kengin
and with best wishes,
Susumu
Takiguchi
Chairman, The
World Haiku Club
Managing Editor, World Haiku Review
E-mail: WHC.takiguchi@susumu.freeserve.co.uk
Milivoj
Objedovic
Director of World Haiku Festival in Holland
The World Haiku Club
Groningerstraat 19
8922
AR Leeuwarden
The Netherlands
Telephone:
00 31 58 2135442
Fax: 00 31 58 2165918
Email: m.objedovic@12move.nl
New
Appointment
Director of World Haiku Festival in Holland
The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce a new appointment of Mr. Milivoj
Objedovic as Director of World Haiku Festival in Holland with immediate effect.
This position will terminate at the end of the Festival.
Milivoj is a well-known figure in the international haiku community not only as
a haiku poet but also as Editor Eastern Europe of the popular and well-respected
international haiku magazine, Woodpecker. Through the magazine, Milivoj has
helped its founding editor, Willem Lofvers, in disseminating haiku across the
world and contributing to the development of haiku literature world-wide.
Though
sadly Woodpecker published its farewell issue last autumn, its admirable
influence and friendly spirit will continue to reverberate by the efforts of its
many readers and contributors in all parts of the world and by those who worked
so hard to get this magazine going, including Milivoj. At the same time, with
his colleagues in
Holland, Milivoj has contributed to the development of haiku in the country and
helped to raise its profile in the world context.
World Haiku Festival in Holland will take place in Leeuwarden, Provincie
Friesland in north-eastern Holland from 12 to 14 September 2003. Milivoj is
directly responsible for organising this Festival and in addition to the twenty
performing participants, wishes to welcome as many haiku poets as possible from
around the world. I hope you will join me in paying tribute to his hard work for
the benefit of haiku and of those of us who love the genre.
Kengin,
Susumu
Important
Announcement:
WORLD HAIKU
REVIEW
Creation of a new world-wide haiku magazine in printed form
The
World Haiku Club is pleased to announce our plan to create a new world-wide
haiku magazine in the printed form. It will be called “World Haiku Review”
at its launch when the current online haiku magazine of WHC will be renamed as
“World Haiku Review OnLine”.
The
two magazines will work separately and independently. In other words, the new
magazine will not be a printed version of the online one, or vice versa. The
inaugural issue is targeted to appear in spring 2004 and it will be published
twice a year. With the appearance of this new magazine, the current online
magazine will have necessary changes.
We
are also pleased to announce the creation of a new WHC position for a person who
will be directly responsible for the new magazine: Director of World Haiku
Review (in printed form) and Mr. Milivoj Objedovic has kindly agreed to take up
this post. Milivoj is a well-known international haiku poet and his editorial
skills and insight are highly regarded after his excellent editorship at
Woodpecker with its founder, Mr. Willem Lofverse (this highly respected and
loved international haiku magazine was sadly discontinued last autumn).
Milivoj
will also be responsible, as Editor, for covering the Balkans, Eastern
Europe, Russia and such countries as Poland. I will function as Managing Editor
as well as Editor responsible for covering the rest of the world. There
will be other editors, officers and advisors who would make up our team.
This
is a very exciting development for the members of WHC and it is hoped that the
new magazine will be of some use to, and enjoyed by, non-WHC members at large
across the world. The new magazine will aim at the highest standards and quality
and at becoming a touchstone against which really good haiku are tested.
The
present online World Haiku Review is the only haiku magazine representing the
whole world as its terms of reference. The new magazine will also be the
first of its kind in printed form. It will be operated not on a national,
organisational, regional or cultural level but on a world-wide level. It will be
the magazine to which haiku poets in the world are proud to belong. It will also
be the magazine which will only be concerned with the development of haiku
in the world-wide context without fear or favour, especially against negative
haiku politics.
With
best wishes,
Susumu
Takiguchi
02/08/03
Go-Shichi-Go
Haiku in English
Now Appearing in Daily Yomiuri
WHC is
proud to announce a new and
important development in the world
haiku scene: The
first instalment of Susumu Takiguchi's new column on haiku in
English with The Daily Yomiuri is now online at
www.yomiuri.co.jp/main/main-e.htm
(Daily Yomiuri main index)
www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20020419wob3.htm
(Go-Shichi-Go Haiku in English)
The Yomiuri Shimbun is the world's largest daily newspaper, its circulation
running into several million people. The Daily Yomiuri, read around the world,
is its English language version.
"Go-Shichi-Go Haiku in English" is the first series of its kind,
especially in terms of its educational purposes. Published monthly, the column
appears both in printed newspaper form and on the Internet. The column is aimed
mainly, but not exclusively, at Japanese haijin (haiku poets) who wish to learn
the basics of how to write haiku in English.
Mr. Takiguchi is the Founder and Chairman of the World Haiku Club (WHC),
established in 1998, and the World Haiku Festival (WHF). He is the Managing
Editor of World Haiku Review, the WHC's magazine. WHC Eigohaiku (Haiku in
English), his internet lessons for teaching the Japanese, step-by-step, how
to write haiku, especially English-language haiku, is a long-term project
arranged by Mitsugu Abe, WHC Policy Advisor and Susumu Takiguchi in association
with premier educational publishers in Japan. Eigohaiku may be found at
www.alc.co.jp/com/eigohaiku/index.html
In addition, WHC provides a mailing list for mentored guidance to Japanese haiku
poets writing English-language haiku, WHCbeginnersjapan :
groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCbeginnersjapan/
Announcement:
Creation of WHCrussian
The World Haiku
Club is pleased to announce the creation of a new bi-lingual list of
Russian/English, WHCrussian, starting with immediate effect.
This is part of
WHC's continued effort to encourage and promote haiku and related works in
languages other than Japanese and English.
Zhanna Rader has
kindly agreed to be Facilitator of WHCrussian. She originally comes from Russia
and now lives in the USA and is an active member of WHC.
To subscribe, go
to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WHCrussian
(Note: WHC fora are private
mailing lists. Upon subscribing, you will be sent an automated application form.
Please fill out and return to the list-owner (Mr. Susumu Takiguchi).
For more World Haiku News, see the
Links Pages for URLs and addresses to clubs and
organisations, and the Haiku News columns in the World Haiku Review.
Also, see the NewsBoard
to browse or add listings of clubs, organisations, journals, contests and other
events.
If you have an event you for which
you would like to request a listing on the WHC official website or in World
Haiku Review, please contact:
Debi
Bender
|
