Poet Profile

Scott Mason

Scott Mason is the author of The Wonder Code: Discover the Way of Haiku and See the World with New Eyes. An associate editor with The Heron's Nest from 2011 to 2021, he currently serves on the board of The Haiku Foundation. He also serves as an executive committee member of the Katonah Poetry Series, now in its sixth decade, near his home in Westchester County, New York.

Awards and Other Honors:

The Wonder Code received the Kirkus Star from Kirkus Reviews, the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award from The Haiku Foundation, and a Merit Book Award (Best Prose) from the Haiku Society of America. Gratitude in the Time of COVID-19: The Haiku Hecameron also received a Merit Book Award (First Place, Haiku Anthology) from the Haiku Society of America.
Scott's individual haiku have earned first places in each of the following: The Betty Drevniok Award (2003, 2005, 2006); British Haiku Award (2005, 2007, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2025); Robert Frost Haiku Contest (2007, 2014); Suruga Baika Literary Award (2007); "One Thousand Cranes" Haiku Contest (2008); International "Kusamakura" Haiku Award (2009); Mainichi Haiku Contest (2009); Robert Spiess Memorial Award (2012, 2026); Haiku International Association Award (2012); Herold G. Henderson Memorial Award (2012); Kaji Aso Studio Haiku Contest (2013, 2025); San Francisco International Haiku Competition (2014, 2022, 2025); Kokako Haiku Competition (2015); IHS International Haiku Competition (2015, 2018); Penumbra Haiku Contest (2019), Jane Reichhold International Haiku Award (2019); the New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Contest / Jeanette Stace Award (2022) and the Bloodroot Haiku Award (2026). One of his senryu received the Gerald Brady Memorial Award (2007).

Books Published:

Gratitude in the Time of COVID-19: The Haiku Hecameron (Girasole Press, 2020) [editor]; The Wonder Code (Girasole Press, 2017); Sharing the Sun, the 2010 Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology [editor]. Both The Wonder Code and Gratitude in the Time of Covid-19: The Haiku Hecameron are available to read at no charge in the Digital Library of The Haiku Foundation.

     spring peeper . . .
all that remains 
     of yesterday’s thunder

inchworm . . .
how long it took to return
to wonder

         dune
    the parabola 
 of a passing tern

flipped horseshoe crab
     seagulls probing
           prehistory

        tooth prints
on a Dixon Ticonderoga 
        beaver moon

evening pond 
  a supernova 
between croaks

Credits:

“spring peeper” – Modern Haiku vol. 36.3, Modern Haiku Award (2005); “dune” – Jack Stamm Haiku Award, Finalist (2010); "tooth prints" - Frogpond vol. 37.2 (2014); “inchworm” – International Kusamakura Haiku Competition, Second Place (2009); “flipped horseshoe crab” – muttering thunder (2014); “evening pond” – Yamadera Bashō Haiku Contest Anthology (2013).