The 2025 Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Contest is open for submissions!

The Nick Virgilio Haiku Association is pleased to announce that submissions for the 2025 Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu Contest are open! Any and all students in grades 7-12 as of September 2024 are encouraged to enter by submitting up to three haiku or senryu poems by filling out the submission form on our website. Entry is completely free. NVHA encourages donations of $1-2 to increase the prize amount, but donation is optional.

The six winners, selected by HSA judges, will receive a prize of $250 and be featured by the Haiku Society of America. See the contest page on our website for the full contest guidelines, educational resources on how to write a winning entry, and more. Best of luck to all young poets, we can’t wait to read your work.

There are also some resources on the entry form page to help students understand what the judges are looking for in a winning entry, and the Haiku Society of America’s website has a collection of all of the previous winners’ poems for reference. Students don’t have to have prior experience or knowledge in writing haiku or senryu in order to submit to the contest.

Deadline: All poems must be received by Sunday, March 30, 2025 by 11:59 EDT. Entries received after that date will not be accepted.