2025 Haiku Contest Results
Congratulations to the winners of the Dreamers 2025 Haiku Contest!
Each year, as the number of submissions to our Haiku Contest continues to grow, selecting winners becomes an increasingly rewarding challenge. For 2025, we are pleased to announce our first, second, and third place winners, along with 5 honourable mentions, each selected from a remarkable pool of haiku submissions.
We are deeply grateful to our esteemed judges. Reinekke Lengelle, a writing professor at Athabasca University, has brought her thoughtful expertise to this contest since its inception in 2018. She teaches courses such as Writing the Self and is the author of Writing the Self in Bereavement, a widely respected work in the field.
We were once again honoured to welcome Bob Fecho, a writing professor at Columbia University, as our guest judge. His insight and careful attention to language and form added depth to the selection process, helping identify haiku that reflect both the precision and emotional resonance of this enduring poetic tradition.
We extend our sincere thanks to all who submitted their work, and we are delighted to share the winning haiku of 2025.
by David Hirst
Prairie dropseed grass
Having let her shock go gray
Shimmers in the freeze
by Edward Baranosky
foghorn sol-etudes
a single seagull appears
out of summer haze
by Holly Woodward
Tossed old love letters,
but the one that said I sucked
at love—that I kept
by Kathleen Nicklaus
Rows of playful waves
Tossing up their frothy skirts
Salty can-can girls
by Lorrina Belluz
pen and scrap paper
lining pocket as I walk
should the muse unfold
by Wendy K. Mages
like vintage merlot
soaking into fine linen
shame blooms neck to crown
by Thomas Smith
backyard hammock
waiting for
the cicada’s song
by InnaRae Guy
what conversations
do dark hours have within?
too many to tell
To read more haiku, check out the winning entries from last year’s haiku contest!
Read more poems on the Dreamers website, like:
Dream Upon Dream
The Worst Drunk Poem I’ve Ever Written
Writing Myself Alive: An Episodic Poem
Maybe a Mango, Recovery, Yearly Physical
“In Her Garden” and “Fresh News”
This Is What Death Does
Rainlight, No Last Words
The Space I Take
The damsel in distress was not for me…
before whisky after jazz
Things I’ve Learned on the Road
We grew up on fear and became heroes…
To be in the Summer **CONTEST WINNER**