About

How Pure Haiku Works

From 2024 onwards, I will be opening Pure Haiku to submissions once a year in October. The theme will be announced on the Submit Page as well as appearing in a blog post on the 1st of the submission month. The submissions window will be open for the entire month.

Once the deadline for submissions has passed, I will read all the haiku and select those I wish to publish on this site. There will usually be between 30-35 posts for individual haiku, as well as TWO 5 day slots for two Featured Haiku Writers. (The artist providing the image for the theme will choose one Featured Writer and I will choose the other). Once I’ve scheduled the selected haiku, I will contact all the writers by email to let them know whether or not their haiku have been accepted.

The selected haiku for each theme will be published over a period of 3 months between 1st January and 31st March. Please make sure you read at least the last two themes to get an idea of how Pure Haiku works and what kind of haiku are accepted here.

Poetry Reviews

From August 2023 I plan to review one collection of poetry each month if this site is not open to submissions or publishing haiku on a particular theme.

I will choose which poetry collections I will review.

Please DO NOT request a review of your poetry collection whether published or unpublished. Please DO NOT send me your poetry collection free of charge as an attachment. All emails received with attachments that I have not requested go straight into my Spam folder without being read.

I have a huge backlog of “To Read” books on my Kindle. Any poetry collection that I review on Pure Haiku will be purchased by me so that I can leave a Verified review on Amazon. Check out my recent reviews HERE.

Why Traditional Haiku?

I originally set up this blog so I had somewhere to publish my traditional haiku. In 2010 I was having haiku rejected purely on the basis that they weren’t modern. Apparently, traditional haiku are too difficult to write! Really?

Well, 5000+ followers later, I think I’ve made my point!

This blog is now a way of sharing my own and other peoples’ traditional haiku. This is me giving something back to the writing community. I know how difficult it is when you start to write. So I have made Pure Haiku a haven for those who enjoy writing and reading traditional haiku in the English language.

All the haiku published on this site are structured classically with 5-7-5 syllables per line. Please take this into account if you wish to Submit your own haiku. I am aware that my haiku cannot be truly classical because I do not write in the old style of Japanese. Yet, this is how I was taught to write them many years ago and I find haiku such as these very pleasing to read.

General Information

To be informed when the next submission window opens, simply sign up to follow this blog and receive notifications. (Enter your email address in the box at the top right hand corner of the page!)

Please note – the plural of haiku is haiku

If you wish to leave comments for other haiku writers, please do so in PROSE. Any comments left in haiku or any other poetic form won’t be approved. If you wish your haiku to appear on this site, please follow the guidelines and submit haiku during submission periods.

Please be aware that I cannot provide critiques or feedback for your manuscript of poetry at this time.

This is a Word Only blog. I only post images when the site is open to submissions and when I am introducing or summarising a theme. All haiku submissions must stand alone without the need for an image.

Any haiku submitted outside of the submission window will be deleted without being read.

New in 2023

In 2023 I am introducing two new features. Once a month, when the site is NOT open to submissions or publishing haiku on the latest theme, I will publish one poetry review about a collection that I have read recently. (The author of such collections may not necessarily have had haiku published at Pure Haiku).

Every so often, I will also put a request out for authors who have had at least one haiku published on the site, to let me know about recently published and forthcoming poetry collections authored solely by themselves (sorry, no anthologies). Please follow the instructions on each specific post if you’re interested in having your collection mentioned on Pure Haiku.

Who am I?

I’m Freya Pickard, the author of The Kaerling series as well as other fantasy books and collections of poetry. My aim in life is to enchant, entertain and engage with readers through my writing. You can find out more about me and my books HERE.

I don’t earn any money from running Pure Haiku. I do it because I love interacting with other poets. Should you wish to support my full time writing career, please consider purchasing one of my books!