Submission Guidelines

fan by Yosa BusonUnder the Basho is an annual organic journal in the sense that accepted submissions will be added to the journal as the year proceeds through the submission period from March 1st through to November 15th.

December 1st will be considered the publication date of the completed annual journal.

Mission Statement

Under the Bashō's mission is to solicit and publish a wide-range of haikai-derived writings as they are being manifested in the 21st century. See the article Haiku in English – A General Guide to Genre Distinction by Richard Gilbert.

In recognising the many trends in contemporary forms that stem from the Japanese haikai tradition, we have broken down what is being currently written into categories of differing approaches to form, technique, content, and style.

What to submit and how

Following the various category links, you may submit your verses to the editorial categories that you consider a best fit for your work. You may also submit work to other categories for consideration by our editors. After reading the guidelines for each category, please ensure that your submissions are sent to the appropriate category editors. What may be unacceptable in one category (i.e. modern haiku) may more appropriately find acceptance in another (i.e. gendai haiku).

Please Note:

  1. These categories are open to poets of all ages.
  2. By submitting to Under the Basho you guarantee that the work that you are submitting is your original writing.

Please include the date, your name and country of residence in all submissions.

Submissions will be handled by the editors as they are received. Notification of acceptances will normally be made within a fortnight of receipt and published shortly after that.

Once we accept work from you in a particular division, you cannot submit to that division again. However, you may submit haiku to another division in which you have not yet been accepted earlier in the publication year. Editors will guide you through these steps.

Conditions

  1. Please submit works that have not been published in any journal, ezine, magazine, book, personal website, Twitter, or Youtube. Poems posted to Facebook groups and workshops are not considered published.
  2. There is currently no payment for accepted content.
  3. Under the Bashō requires exclusive rights to publication of all work accepted into the journal, including first electronic rights, for a period of 30 days after the work first appears on Under the Bashō's website. After this period has elapsed, all rights return to the authors/artists who are then free to have their work republished or to republish the work themselves on their own blogs, sharing websites and on social media. Wherever a work is republished, Under the Bashō must be cited as the place of first publication.
  4. Work submitted to us must be the original work of the submitting poet and must not be under consideration by any other publication or any contest. Following on-line publication with us, all rights revert to the author. Under the Bashō reserves the right to publish any work accepted for publication for any future print or electronic anthologies and/or retrospectives of the journal or its associated sites viz. The Living Haiku Anthology and The Living Senryu Anthology. Under the Bashō does not have the right to authorize publication of your work elsewhere.
  5. Submission to Under the Bashō is deemed to be an acceptance of these conditions.

The role of the staff of Under the Bashō is to identify and showcase each poet's best work in the journal. Please send us the best fruits of your practice, your studies, your talent, and your self so that we may present it to an informed and wider readership!

Thank you!