It’s been a long time since there’s been some proper collaboration on this blog—far too long. I’ve been itching to do another thematic collection. They’re easier to put together than doodleku challenges, or, say, sorting through a ton of emails. More importantly, while I’ve been quite productive with my own writing over the last four or five months, I miss the energy and diversity of everyone’s work.
If you’ve been following the blog (if you have, thanks for reading!), you may have noticed I’ve been doing a lot of haibun. Specifically, micro haibun. Or tiny haibun (if you’re me). Or small bunnies (if you’re Johannes S. H. Berg).
If you’re completely new to the blog (if so, welcome!) and/or new to haibun, haibun is the combination of poetic prose and (traditionally) a haiku. The prose and haiku complement one another rather an illustrate or repeat what the other half has said. Something new comes into being by the combination of the two. There are plenty of examples on my blog. You might also check out journals like Haibun Today or Contemporary Haibun Online.
So what about the tiny part? I came back to haibun as a genre via my studies in flash fiction. During that time, I’d come across Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer and obsessed over the concept. I wrote hint fiction after hint fiction. After all, it wasn’t that far off from haiku. Then it occurred to me last summer… what if I paired it with a haiku? Needless to say, it stuck.
Of course, I can’t have all this fun on my own. That’s where you come in.
I will take tiny haibun until Tuesday, September 30th. For this particular project, I will take up to 5, and usually I’ll take at least one. I reserve the right to ask you to try again if nothing really catches my eye (that really does mean try again!), or I may ask you to make revisions.
Theme/What to write about: Open topic! Run wild.
What form: Haibun. Particularly tiny haibun. This means the prose of the haibun must be 25 words or less. Your prose may be paired with either haiku or tanka. (Tip: The 25 words doesn’t include the title.)
How many: As many as you want! I will take as many as 5 and no less than 1 (though see comments above).
When: Send them in by Tuesday, September 30th (I will wait until the whole world has reached the end of the 30th).
Where to send and what to include: Send an email to aubriecox [at] gmail [dot] com with “TINY HAIBUN” in the subject line. Paste your haibun in the body of the email. Please and thanks. Make sure you include your name as you want it to appear in the PDF.
Additionally of you want me to link back, please send along the name and link of your blog/Twitter account/website/etc.
Other important stuff and things you should keep in mind:
• Most journals and magazines will consider these works published.
• If your work is already published, include the publishing credits (it’s kind of important and a nice thing to do).
• You, as the writer/artist/poet/etc, retain the rights to you work before and after it appears on my blog/in the PDF.
Yay Words! 