Anthology of Haiku and Senryu by Women

STATUS: ON HOLD INDEFINITELY

Last Update:

At the beginning of 2011, it came to my attention that there is not anthology of just women’s English-language haiku (none that I’ve found anyway). With such prolific and powerful women writers within the English-language community, they deserve a space/recognition of their own. With that in mind, I decided to put the project into motion on my own.

From February to April, I put out a call for submissions and received a little over 400 poets’ work from around the world. Since then, I have been pouring through these submissions and trying to select the best of the best to represent the high-quality haiku and senryu women have written in English. Eventually, I will also try to collect selections from poets who have passed away, because many of them were key players in the development of the haiku community. After a long hiatus, as of June 2012, I am back to working on the Anthology of English-Language Haiku and Senryu by Women. At this time, I’m not accepting any new submissions. In the future, when I’ve managed to get through the poets’ work I have received, I may open up submissions once again, as I know there are many wonderful poets yet to be discovered.

One of the major obstacles, as some of you know, has been finding time to work on top of my obligations at school as a student and instructor. In the fall 2012 semester, I have been granted permission to work on the anthology as part of an independent study on literary editing. This anthology is always on the back of my mind, and so it feels like a relief and joy to have this opportunity.

At the moment, I’m estimating completion in late winter 2013/early 2014 to allot for several rounds of editing, as well as gathering poems and information on poets who have left us. I do not know how much the book will cost, nor how poets will be compensated (if at all). I have a publisher who has expressed interest, but prefer not to say who in case things don’t work out, or go differently than planned.

If you’re someone who has sent me unpublished work and still feel unsettled about waiting so long, you are welcome to submit elsewhere in the meantime. This is an anthology to present the best poems by women authors, rather than a montage of new work, which means that, as long as the author retains rights to the work and/or the first publishers grant permission, I am more than willing to reprint previously published works.

The road is long, things have not always gone as I have expected or wanted, but the end result should be beautiful.

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Original Call For Submissions:

Call for Submissions: An Anthology of English-Language Haiku by Women

Seeking haiku and senryu for an anthology focusing on excellent English-language haiku by women around the world. Ladies, send 5-15 of your best haiku, published or unpublished, to: paperlanternhaiku@gmail.com. With your submission, please include your name, country, a brief bio of 150 words or less, and any applicable publication credits of submitted poems. Nominations of poets and individual poems are also welcome, and strongly encouraged.

Deadline: April 15.

It had come to my attention when searching that there is not anthology of just women’s English-language haiku (none that I’ve found anyway). With such prolific and powerful women writers within the English-language community, they deserve a space/recognition of their own.