Friday, October 3, 2008

Announcement: KIKAKUZA HAIBUN CONTEST—ENGLISH SECTION


Kikakuza is a group of haikai (linked-verse) poets founded in 2005 in honour of Kikaku (1661~1707), Basho’s celebrated disciple. We wish to help revive the tradition of haibun which gradually went out of favour after the Meiji Restoration. For this purpose, we have created a Haibun Contest and invite foreign writers to enter. The contest will be judged by Nobuyuki Yuasa and Stephen Henry Gill. The results of the contest will be announced in the Kikakuza Bulletin and on its homepage, and awards will be sent directly to the winners. All entries must meet the following conditions.

1 Subject: Free, but discretion must be used to avoid slander and obscenity.
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2 Style: No restrictions, but special attention must be paid to honour the spirit of haikai.
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3 Length: Not more than 30 lines, each line of not more than 80 spaces long.
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4 Haiku: At least one haiku should be included.
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5 Format: Print on a sheet of A4 size paper and write at the bottom your name and your pen name if you have any, together with your address and telephone number. Your privacy will be strictly protected, and the judges will not see your names.
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6 Deadline: All entries should reach the following address by 31 January 2009. Entries received after this date will not be accepted. Kikakuza (c/o Kifuu Futagami)117-1 Nakogi, Hadano-shi, Kanagawa-ken, Japan 257-0024
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7 Entry Fee: All entrants residing in Japan are kindly requested to pay 2000 yen into the following postal money order account and send Kikakuza a receipt (or a copy of it) together with your haibun.Postal Money Order: 00250-4-95332 Kikaku no KaiNo entry fee will be requested from those living abroad. We cannot accept personal checks because it is so costly to process them.
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8 Questions: All questions should be sent to the Kikakuza address above or by fax to the following number: 0463-82-6315.

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