​Trailblazer Contest

[AlanSummers]

First Annual Trailblazer Contest

The Trailblazer Contest is an annual search for haikai and tanka poetry that betters their  genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking.

Our Annual Trailblazer Contest offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all.

We hope that over the years, our Annual Trailblazer Contest will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history.

​We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!
Continue to check back for more details!

https://www.trailblazercontest.com

[Lorraine Pester]

First Annual Trailblazer Contest

The Trailblazer Contest is an annual search for haikai and tanka poetry that betters their  genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking.

Our Annual Trailblazer Contest offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all.

We hope that over the years, our Annual Trailblazer Contest will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history.

​We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!
Continue to check back for more details!

https://www.trailblazercontest.com

Is this what you alluded to in a conversation with me the other day? This has you written all over it.

Looking forward to more info as time goes on.

Lorraine

[AlanSummers]

Hi Lorraine,

It's quite possible that it was this, that I alluded to, and it's going to be exciting and very different and inclusive and more than just a simple contest.

So I'm part of a large team who are all passionate about giving more writers more encouragement and recognition, and in a very different way than just being placed. More details will slowly but surely arrive at the website.

There's plenty of time as the 'contest' isn't until August.

warm regards,
Alan

First Annual Trailblazer Contest

The Trailblazer Contest is an annual search for haikai and tanka poetry that betters their  genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking.

Our Annual Trailblazer Contest offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all.

We hope that over the years, our Annual Trailblazer Contest will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history.

​We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!
Continue to check back for more details!

https://www.trailblazercontest.com

Is this what you alluded to in a conversation with me the other day? This has you written all over it.

Looking forward to more info as time goes on.

Lorraine

[Lorraine Pester]

Hi Lorraine,

It's quite possible that it was this, that I alluded to, and it's going to be exciting and very different and inclusive and more than just a simple contest.

So I'm part of a large team who are all passionate about giving more writers more encouragement and recognition, and in a very different way than just being placed. More details will slowly but surely arrive at the website.

There's plenty of time as the 'contest' isn't until August.

warm regards,
Alan

First Annual Trailblazer Contest

The Trailblazer Contest is an annual search for haikai and tanka poetry that betters their  genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking.

Our Annual Trailblazer Contest offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all.

We hope that over the years, our Annual Trailblazer Contest will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history.

​We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!
Continue to check back for more details!

https://www.trailblazercontest.com

Is this what you alluded to in a conversation with me the other day? This has you written all over it.

Looking forward to more info as time goes on.

Lorraine

Alan,

We need this kind of encouragement to broaden how we write English language short forms. That there are, among the powers that be, people who want to see the genre expand is an impetus for me to try new things.

Exciting times ahead.

Thank you

Lorraine

[Seaview (Marion Clarke)]

Very exciting, Alan! Looking forward to hearing more details.

marion

[AlanSummers]

Hi Marion,

Lots happening behind the scenes with team discussions on various private platforms!

More details will appear over the coming months.

We are not looking for anything that has been done pre-2021. It should be innovative but not gimmicky.

So far haiku, senryu, and tanka are mentioned. But thinking outside the box is ideal even in those regular genres.

Think also of meandering haiku by Robin Anna Smith, and sudo-ku by Kat Lehmann. See how they broke the imagined rules set by poets. <grin>

Links:
https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom/grix
and
https://www.humankindjournal.org/humanities/a-sudo-ku-by-kat-lehmann7474527

It displays the link and shift method in haiku that derives from hokku and its renga and renku antecedents, but still remains 'a single haiku'.

Don't copy, or emulate, create something entirely different too! <grin>

You may create something that not only follows the inferred brief but shoots beyond it, and surprises us, that's also what we want, to be stretched and evolve from the imaginative entry.

"...betters...genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking."

and

A "...Contest [that] offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all."

and

"will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history."

"We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!"

The date is the entire calendar month of August 2021, so six months or so to create something every different. Keep your 'contest' entry and experimentation under your hat, as a private project.

Continue to check back for more details!

Very exciting, Alan! Looking forward to hearing more details.

marion

[AlanSummers]

Please check the updated pages!

home page: https://www.trailblazercontest.com
submissions: https://www.trailblazercontest.com/submissions.html
and
team members! https://www.trailblazercontest.com/team.html

[Lorraine Pester]

Please check the updated pages!

home page: https://www.trailblazercontest.com
submissions: https://www.trailblazercontest.com/submissions.html
and
team members! https://www.trailblazercontest.com/team.html

WOW! I read the team list and I am excited. I have Kat’s books. Much resonance and really like her style. The only ones I didn’t recognize was Margaret Walker and GRIX.

Read the submissions. Hmmmm. Better make it my very best!

I hope this endeavor sets the haikai world on its ear🙃🙃🙃🙃

Lorraine

[flowerfox]

'beautiful monsters' like the sound of that, and look forward to reading the entries selected.
A long way off, but worth the wait by the sound of things.

[GRIX]

Here is my website if you want to read any of my work. Most of it has been published under Robin Anna Smith.   I am a beast of many names . . .  GRIX

https://www.grixartistix.com/

I hope you will all send something in!

lol I didn't even see Alan shared my meandering haiku - Thanks, Alan!

If anyone wants to download a free copy of my haibun/tanka story chap, Fire Rainbow you can here: https://payhip.com/b/2Evl

[Seaview (Marion Clarke)]

Hi Marion,

Lots happening behind the scenes with team discussions on various private platforms!

More details will appear over the coming months.

We are not looking for anything that has been done pre-2021. It should be innovative but not gimmicky.

So far haiku, senryu, and tanka are mentioned. But thinking outside the box is ideal even in those regular genres.

Think also of meandering haiku by Robin Anna Smith, and sudo-ku by Kat Lehmann. See how they broke the imagined rules set by poets. <grin>

Links:
https://sonicboomjournal.wixsite.com/sonicboom/grix
and
https://www.humankindjournal.org/humanities/a-sudo-ku-by-kat-lehmann7474527

It displays the link and shift method in haiku that derives from hokku and its renga and renku antecedents, but still remains 'a single haiku'.

Don't copy, or emulate, create something entirely different too! <grin>

You may create something that not only follows the inferred brief but shoots beyond it, and surprises us, that's also what we want, to be stretched and evolve from the imaginative entry.

"...betters...genres by pushing boundaries through the use of innovation, honing, and truth-seeking."

and

A "...Contest [that] offers a new manner of recognition focusing on poems and poets trailblazing — advancing genres in their various forms (including ones perhaps never seen!) for the benefit of all."

and

"will serve as a way to measure not each of us above another poet, but illustrate the ways in which we have grown, morphed, and even re-visited earlier versions of historical landmarks in haikai and tanka history."

"We hope you will all join us on this journey. Your participation is key to its success!"

The date is the entire calendar month of August 2021, so six months or so to create something every different. Keep your 'contest' entry and experimentation under your hat, as a private project.

Continue to check back for more details!

Very exciting, Alan! Looking forward to hearing more details.

marion

Thanks for the update, Alan! Great reading from Robin Anna Smith aka GRIX and Kat Lehmann! 👍

Thank you.

marion