The IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2016 Anthology has now been published. This anthology is an annual volume showcasing the Grand Prize Winner, Runner Up and Commended entries to the award, selected by Dr Drago Štambuk, Founding Judge of the competition. This year the anthology also features a commentary from Guest Judge Alan Summers, who made a special selection on the theme of “justice”.
The IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award was created to celebrate classical and modern haiku, including both those poems that follow the traditional form and those that play with it. Though traditionally Japanese, haiku has become a global art form. In keeping with IAFOR’s international scope, we welcome haiku submissions from around the world.
Submissions for the seventh IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award are open from September 30, 2016 to March 1, 2017.
Foreword
The IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award is now in its sixth year, and I am very proud to see that this year’s event grew to nearly 700 submissions from 60 countries, attesting to the award’s international popularity, as well as the enduring appeal of haiku.
An organisation originating in Japan, The International Academic Forum now hosts more than 40 events each year over three continents, and is a keen supporter and promoter of the arts, with international competitions in photography, film and literature.
Haiku is a quintessentially Japanese form of poetry, and has become one of the country’s greatest gifts to the world. It has been adopted and adapted internationally, so there are now many thousands of haiku poets writing in myriad countries and languages.
One such country is Croatia, where haiku has a large following. Croatia is the country of both Vladimir Devidé, in whose honour the award is named, and Drago Štambuk, Founding Judge of the competition. This year we were pleased to welcome award-winning author and poet Alan Summers, who in his role as Guest Judge made a selection on the conference theme of “justice”.
The Grand Prize winning entry by Suraja Roychowdhury of the United States was also the 1st Choice of Guest Judge Alan Summers. It is a testament to the beauty of Suraja Roychowdhury’s winning haiku that it was chosen independently and anonymously for both sections of the award.
I am sure that you will be impressed by the diversity and range of poems selected this year by Dr Štambuk, which take the reader on an emotional roller coaster through their sparse verse.
Dr Joseph Haldane
President of IAFOR
Acknowledgements
IAFOR would like to thank His Excellency Dr Drago Štambuk, Founding Judge of the IAFOR Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award, and critic and poet Dr A. Robert Lee, LibrAsia2016 Keynote Speaker, who announced the winning entries at The Asian Conference on Literature (LibrAsia2016) in Kobe, Japan.
We would also like to thank the Haiku International Association for their continued support of the event, particularly its President, Dr Akito Arima, as well as Hana Fujimoto and Emiko Miyashita, both Featured Haiku Workshop Presenters at LibrAsia2016 and members of the Haiku International Association.
Special thanks goes to the Guest Judge for this year’s award, writer and poet Alan Summers, whose special selection and commentary on the theme of “justice” is available to read in this anthology.