March 1 – June 1
The Haiku Invitational is an international online contest that attracts submissions from all over the world.
The top poems in six main categories (Vancouver, BC, Canada, the United States, International, and Youth (age 17 and under) will be featured in the Haiku Canada newsletter, an online publication in the newsletter of the Haiku Society of America, and published on the VCBF website.
These haiku will not only be showcased but also receive special celebrity readings, bringing them to life in a truly captivating manner during the Festival. Moreover, they take center stage in the Haiku Exhibition, where Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Watuth, and Japanese-Canadian visual artists transform these poetic gems into stunning visual pieces. As we look ahead, our program is set to grow even further, as we plan to collaborate with talented Japanese artists this Spring, fostering cross-cultural creativity and celebrating the essence of haiku through a global lens.
To encourage the writing, reading, and appreciation of this poetic form judges choose poems in additional categories of “Sakura Awards” and “Honourable Mention.”
Top 2025 Winners
| Vancouver cherry blossoms the baby’s epiphany about fingers Antoinette Cheung Vancouver, British Columbia | United States her oxygen by the window cherry blossoms Shawn Blair Cohoes, New York |
| British Columbia cherry blossoms birdwatching takes a back seat Marcia Burton Salt Spring Island, BC | International along the path to myself cherry blossoms Stefanie Bucifal Konstanz, Germany |
| Canada blossom time giving her seat to an elder Nancy Richards Crapaud, Prince Edward Island | Youth cherry festival the robins gather in the grass Carmen F.S., Age 9 Winnetka, Illinois, USA |
See judges’ commentary on winning poems and our other standout haiku submissions!
About Haiku ↗
Read all about haiku, including form and technique.
Learning Haiku ↗
Find materials to introduce haiku to both teachers and students.
Winning Haiku ↗
Read all winning haiku entries from 2006 – 2023.
2025 Commentary ↗
Read the judges’ 2025 Commentary for inspiration for your own haiku.
2025 Sakura Awards and Honourable Mentions ↗
View additional categories of 2025 Sakura Awards and Honourable Mentions.
Jump Into Haiku↗
Learn how to write your own haiku!
Haiku Exhibition ↗
Celebrating winning haiku with a unique Haiku Exhibition with commissioned pieces by Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh artists.
2025 HAIKU INVITATIONAL
Judges
Sonja Arntzen
Sonja Arntzen, professor emerita of the University of Toronto, taught Japanese poetry and literature for twenty-five years. She encouraged students to engage personally with Japanese poetry by having them write haiku, tanka (waka), and linked verse in English, which she composed along with them. Upon retirement in 2005, she devoted more time to poetry, becoming a regular contributor of tanka to Gusts and Eucalypt, and of haiku to Kokako. With noted haiku poet Naomi Beth Wakan, she produced two books of “response tanka,” Double Talk (2010) and Reflections (2011). In 2016 she was guest speaker for the ninth annual Seabeck Haiku Getaway sponsored by Haiku Northwest. Now living in Vancouver, British Columbia, she maintains her passion for research and translation of premodern Japanese literature. The eleventh-century tanka memoir, The Sarashina Diary (2018), and Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology: A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan (2022) are her most recent publications. She is currently translating a tenth-century tale, Ochikubo Monogatari (Lady of the Low Chamber).
Anne Elise Burgevin
Anne Elise Burgevin blends her professional work as a former elementary teacher and a creative writing teacher with her passion for haiku. Helping youth explore their role as stewards of our natural resources is important to Anne’s sense of purpose as an educator, as is assisting her students in their search for their voice and expressive nature. She has found haiku to be an exciting vehicle for these goals. Red Moon Press published Anne’s first collection of haiku, Frozen Earth, in 2018, and her second collection, Sunny Uplands, in 2024. She is an associate editor at The Heron’s Nest, a quarterly haiku journal founded in 1999. Her haiku and haibun have appeared in various haiku journals for the past fourteen years. She has been a cojudge for five years in the annual Hexapod Haiku Contest, sponsored by the Pennsylvania State University Frost Entomological Museum. In the spring of 2025, a curated selection of Anne’s poetry will be featured in New Resonance 14 from Red Moon Press. Haiku has become a way of life for Anne, as has motherhood, Shorin-ryu karate, gardening, bird-watching, fabric art, and the culinary arts. Please visit her website at anneburgevin.com
P. H. Fischer
P. H. Fischer, a Pushcart Prize nominated poet, lives in Vancouver, Canada on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Peter is the former Co-Editor of Prune Juice Journal. He co-edited Winds Aloft, the 2023 Seabeck Haiku Getaway Anthology, and co-judged the 2024 Haiku Society of America’s H.G. Henderson Haiku Award Contest. His poetry appears in international haiku/senryu/haibun journals and anthologies including the Red Moon Anthologies, Haiku 2023 (Modern Haiku Press), and Contemporary Haibun. He is a past winner of the Haiku Invitational of the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (Vancouver Category, 2022, Sakura Awards 2023). Peter’s poetry is featured in New Resonance 14, published by Red Moon Press. When not writing/editing or working (he manages a government-funded employment program for the YWCA), Peter loves spending time with family, hiking, bike camping, and enjoying his new-found hobby of disc golf!
Programs subject to change.
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