2026 Porad Award

Celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the Porad Award in 2026!

Haiku Northwest is pleased to announce its 23rd annual Porad Haiku Award. The contest is named for Francine Porad, founder of Haiku Northwest, former president of the Haiku Society of America, and editor for eight years of Brussels Sprout, an international journal of haiku and art. We welcome your haiku submissions!

Deadline: Submissions through the online form or by email open on July 13, 2026 (please do not submit or pay fees before this date), and must be received by August 30, 2026.

Eligibility: Open to all, members and nonmembers alike, except Haiku Northwest officers, the contest coordinator, and judge.

Prizes: $100 for first prize, $50 for second prize, and $25 for third prize, plus honorable mentions. Poems will also be published on the Haiku Northwest website (see past Porad Award Winners). Winners will be announced at Haiku Northwest’s annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway, to be held October 22–25, 2026.

Adjudication: Our 2026 judge is Antoinette Cheung. Previously coeditor of the contemporary Japanese short-form journals Prune Juice and Confluence, Antoinette has placed in numerous haiku contests and has had her work published in leading haiku and senryu journals and anthologies, including New Resonance 14 and The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku.

Entry Fees: $5.00 for one entry (for up to five haiku, one entry per person), in U.S. funds only. Please pay via PayPal (preferred) or by postal mail (contact the contest coordinator, address below, if you need to pay by postal mail).

• PayPal Payment (preferred): To pay by PayPal, please use the following PayPal button. The entry fee is $5.00 for up to five haiku per entry (one entry per person). Note that PayPal charges a fee for online payments, which Haiku Northwest is absorbing. If you wish to help offset these fees, please include an extra dollar or more with your payment (choose one of the three payment options below). You should receive a transaction or confirmation number when you make your PayPal payment. Please include that number with your submission, whether using the online submission form or by email (see below). Then submit your poems (see “Submissions” below).
  
  Note: Choose one of the three payment options first by selecting the drop-down arrow and then select Pay Now. On a phone or tablet, you may need to use scroll bars to display parts of the following PayPal button (such as the drop-down arrow).

• Postal Payment: If you are not able to send payment using PayPal, contact Luke Brannon via email at luke.hnw@gmail.com and he will provide further instructions. Checks/money orders must be made payable to “Haiku Northwest” or send cash in U.S. dollars (at your own risk).

Submissions: Poems submitted must be previously unpublished. Poems posted on public Facebook pages, blogs, or other websites are not eligible for submission. By submitting, you assert that your entries are previously unpublished and are solely your own original creations. If you submit using the online submission form, please do NOT also email any submissions—use one submission method only (it’s okay for payments to come separately, though, if you can’t pay via PayPal).

• Online Form Submissions (preferred): Before submitting, please pay the entry fee of $5 by PayPal (above) for up to five haiku, and make a note of your transaction/confirmation number. Then go to our online submission form and enter your name, address, email, phone number, PayPal confirmation number (if paying by PayPal), and up to five poems.

• Email Submissions: We strongly prefer that you submit using our online submission form, but if it does not work for you, you may submit by email. When submitting by email, please type or paste your previously unpublished haiku in the body of the message (no attached files) and write “Porad Award Entries—[your name]” in the subject line. Include your name, address, email address, phone number, and method/date of payment above your haiku (include your PayPal transaction or confirmation number if PayPal provides one when you made your payment; please also indicate if you included any extra money to offset PayPal charges). If you are concerned about any special formatting characteristics, you may add a brief note after each applicable poem. Please do not number your poems, and leave one blank line between the poems. Send your submissions to be received by August 30, 2026 to the contest coordinator, Luke Brannon, at luke.hnw@gmail.com.

Additional Information: See past Porad Award results. If you have questions about the contest, please email luke.hnw@gmail.com. If you have questions about the submission form, please email WelchM@aol.com.