Ok, folks, we have a new Invitation Only Issue and I have offered some of my commentary on the work included. I invited the following poets to contribute:

Andrew Riutta, Glenn G. Coats, Shloka Shankar, Lew Watts, Alexis Rotella, Jennifer Hambrick and Richard Gilbert, Jennifer Hambrick, Roberta Beary, Kala Ramesh, Johannes S. H. Bjerg, and Terri L. French

I think you will both enjoy and learn by reading their work, I certainly did!

A new video is up now of Richard Gilbert and Jennifer Hambrick discussing two of their collaborative haibun. It really was great of these two fine poets to to share their thoughts. Take a look, you may find some things you can use.

NOTE: I am redoing the site, and things are missing now since 9 pages have been temporarily removed. Things should be back to normal (whatever that is) by November.

BTW, both Kelly and I have completed reading the submissions for Issue 104 and if you have submitted and not heard from us please feel free to email us.

Peace

Mike Rehling

We are happy to announce that Kelly Moyer, a former co-editor of Failed Haiku, and the old man himself (Mike Rehling) will be handling Failed Haiku going forward! Kelly will handle everything senryu-related except for Haiga and Haibun areas which will be handled by Mike. Please go to the Submissions Page and read it over, and please try to remember to use the correct emails for your senryu and haiga and haibun submissions.

SUBMISSION GUIDES

More news later, but thank you all for being a part of Failed Haiku!

Kelly Moyer and Mike Rehling

This issue is packed with wonderful senryu for your reading pleasure. We also have some announcements to make. This is the last issue by Bryan Rickert who served as editor for the last two and a half years. Please join me in thanking him for the job he has done!

Failed Haiku will continue and in a couple of weeks, we announce some changes so please stay tuned. Many exciting changes are planned, and they will take the strain of one person editorship out of the equation by adding some help in the social media area as well as new editors to shift the load more evenly.

As always, we want to appeal to a broad selection of poets from different cultures and poems that range from the traditional to the experimental.

Peace

Mike Rehling

I would like to give a giant thank you to Marilyn Ashbaugh and John Pappas for all of their work as judges this year. It was no small task. There was a record number of contest submissions, and the quality of the submissions was fantastic. I would also like to thank everyone for submitting such fine senryu. This contest is always topnotch and sets a high standard for senryu everywhere. My congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions.

-Bryan

One Hundred issues seem like a landmark but I feel that it is not an accomplishment that any of the editors here at Failed Haiku can claim as their own. I feel that the success of all this lies with the contributors and readers. Without a dedicated senryu community, this experiment would have fizzled out long ago. My sincerest thank you to everyone who trusts me with their poems and to Michael Rehling for this opportunity to be your editor. Michael kindly agreed to write a small introduction for the issue and I encourage everyone to read it. Some new things are on their way to Failed Haiku.

-Bryan

Information regarding the Murtha contest was sent out earlier in an email. I apologize to those who are not on the email list because the information was not posted on the site. Here it is. No worries, there is still time.

Contest Rules

1. Only TWO UNPUBLISHED submissions per poet.

2. Poems that have been workshopped or appeared on social media are suitable.

3. Short submission time of 10 days. Submissions begin on June 1st beginning at 12:01 AM EDT and must be in our email box by midnight EDT on June 10th. Any emails received either before or after will NOT be judged.

4. All email submissions MUST be sent to:  failedhaikucontests@gmail.com with MURTHA CONTEST in the Subject field.

5. The top three Winners will be notified by July 1st but I will not rush the judges so extra time will be given if necessary.

I’d like to thank our judges who will remain anonymous during the course of the contest and for all of the wonderful participants that make this contest so great every year.

-Bryan

People have been mentioning “scroll fatigue” to me so I have made changes to the formatting of the issue. In some cases, there will be more than one poet on a single page. I believe this makes for a better flow to the reading. In your next submission, please feel free to tell me if you like the change. Also, we have a new feature. John Pappas has written commentary on a senryu from the previous issue, and it is a must read! Thank you to everyone for submitting and reading.

-Bryan

It is no secret that former editor Hemapriya and I were editing smaller issues of Failed Haiku this last year. This issue does not follow that trend. I would like to thank all of the submitters in January for the wonderful work that they sent my way. I would also like to show my gratitude for the Cherita writers out there who submitted and for all the first timers that did so great. I know it’s a long issue but think of it this way, you have two months to read it instead of just one. With that in mind, submissions open again on March 10th. An open issue with no theme. Please enjoy this great issue!!!

-Bryan

A great big thank you to our guest editor Allyson Whipple for curating this fantastic issue. So many great senryu poems to read! Please be reminded that our submission and publication schedule has changed. Head on over the submissions page and take a look. I look forward to starting another great year of Failed Haiku and to reading all of your submissions.

-Bryan