Examples How to Submit Award Highlights Tips & Resources

MacQueen’s Quinterly is especially interested in these three poetic hybrids. In particular, works which include elements of fiction as well as “faction,” pieces that use story-telling techniques such as dialogue and plot, and incorporate more embellishment than journalistic reportage.

“Amen” to these words from Bob Lucky, former content editor at Contemporary Haibun Online (CHO):

“...as an editor, I read a lot of haibun that is just one damn fact after another. Memoir and autobiography are the trickiest bits of nonfiction around because in order to tell the Truth you have to lie. There is artifice in art.”

—Quoted with permission from “Random Praise: Tim Gardiner’s ‘Skeleton Wood’” (CHO, July 2017)

To give you an idea of what MacQ publisher Clare MacQueen is looking for, three dozen examples follow. They are listed first by the rare forms, cheribun and tanka tales, followed by haibun and haibun stories. (A separate list which highlights award-winning haibun appears under “How to Submit These Forms” later in this page.)

Many of these works include various degrees of artfulness and often a bit of humor to tell their Truths:

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1. Tina Barry: I am from Pennsylvania USA    my please    how about you! [found cheribun]
   
   
2. Tina Barry: Three Lovers I Never Had [cheribun story]
   
   
3. Roy J. Beckemeyer: The Gardener’s Caesura [cheribun]
   
   
4. Margaret Dornaus: The Writer’s Cabin [cheribun]
   
   
5. Hazel Hall: Ghosts of Gershwin [cheribun story]
   
   
6. Oz Hardwick: Adventures in Experiential Limnology [cheribun]
   
   
7. Peter Jastermsky: Fishboy [cheribun story]
   
   
8. Kat Lehmann: Take Only Photos [cheribun, braided]
   
   
9. Gary S. Rosin: Birthdays of the Dead [cheribun]
   
   
10. Gary S. Rosin: Designated Driver [cheribun story]
    
    
11. Jane Salmons: Black Market [cheribun story]
    
    
12. Scott Wiggerman: Brothers by Blood [cheribun, braided]
    
    

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1. Cynthia Anderson: The Psychic [tanka tale]
   
   
2. Claire Everett: Subtle Ghosts [tanka tale]
   
   
3. Michael H. Lester: You Know, It Don’t Come Easy [tanka tale]
   
   
4. Tony Steven Williams: So glad to be here [tanka prose]
   
   
5. Charles D. Tarlton: Weight as Such [tanka tale]
   
   

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The following pieces are haibun:

1. Eugene Datta: Elina
   
   
2. Marietta McGregor: Terror Australis
   
   
3. Mark Meyer:
   (±)-2-Methyl-1,2,3,4,10,14b-hexahydropyrazino[2,1-a]pyrido[2,3-c][2]benzazepine
   
   
4. Jacqueline Pearce: Holding On [ekphrastic]
   
   
5. Elisabeth Preston-Hsu: Ache, with pollen and kink [burning haibun, erotic]
   
   
6. Andrew Riutta: Prayer
   
   
7. Alexis Rotella: After My Mother’s Burial [micro]
   
   
8. Daryl Scroggins: Morning Ritual
   
   
9. Stuart Watson: Magicians
   
   
10. Lew Watts: Flat Pack [anomalous]
    
    

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These pieces are haibun stories:

1. Jerome Berglund: Tornado Drill
   
   
2. Chuck Brickley: Even With Adam
   
   
3. Terri L. French: Tzur Hei HaOlamim
   
   
4. Joan Leotta: Adam offers apples to tempt the Land Girls as told to me by the London-born one. [ekphrastic]
   
   
5. Stella Pierides: Noir [A Triptych]
   
   
6. Keith Polette: A Burrito with Bashō
   
   
7. Charmaine Smith: River Music
   
   
8. Harriot West: Posing for Degas [ekphrastic]
   
   
9. LL Wohlwend: Priceless [braided, ekphrastic]
   
   

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How to Submit These Forms:

Electronic submissions are preferred, via MacQ’s Submittable page. However, if you visit that page and see the message, “There are presently no open calls for submissions,” then please query Clare MacQueen via email: macquinterly [at] gmail [dot] com

Maximum word count per piece is a thousand, including the title, prose, and micro-poem verses, as well as any epigraphs and any author footnotes. Multiple cherita, haiku, senryu, and/or tanka within a single piece are acceptable, even encouraged.

Clare’s looking for polished writing, with an eye toward nominating exceptional works for annual awards such as Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, the Red Moon Anthologies (including Contemporary Haibun), and The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun. She’s thrilled to report the following highlights, which are listed in alpha order by author’s last name:

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1. Cynthia Anderson’s haibun story Formerly Known as Ion was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
   
   
2. Roberta Beary’s Grief: The Uncut Version was among the four recipients of The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun 2024; and was reprinted in the anthology Contemporary Haibun 20.
   
   
3. Roberta Beary’s haibun Dad Says was reprinted in upside down: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2023.
   
   
4. Rose Mary Boehm’s haibun The Ashes of Ukraine was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 19.
   
   
5. Glenn G. Coats’ haibun Headstream was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
   
   
6. Cherie Hunter Day’s haibun 42R Mill Street was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
   
   
7. Margaret Dornaus’ ekphrastic haibun Le Rêve was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
   
   
8. Lynn Edge’s haibun story Year of the Farrier was reprinted in two anthologies: Contemporary Haibun 19 and Best Small Fictions 2024.
   
   
9. Claire Everett’s haibun A Thousand Thens was among the four recipients of The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun 2023.
   
   
10. Emily Fortney’s anomalous haibun Finding My Belly Button was long-listed for The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun 2024.
    
    
11. Jonathan Humphrey’s haibun story NASA Gives Spiders, Insects LSD was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
    
    
12. Maureen Kingston’s haibun Anniversary was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 19.
    
    
13. Kat Lehmann’s anomalous haibun Sensory Deprivation Tank was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 19.
    
    
14. Bob Lucky’s haibun The Portugese Lessons Finally Pay Off was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 20.
    
    
15. Bob Lucky’s haibun sequence “Scribble Away: Notes from Bahrain, March 2022” was shortlisted for The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun 2022.
    
    
16. Bob Lucky’s haibun Verisimilitude was reprinted in two anthologies: Contemporary Haibun 19 and upside down: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2023.
    
    
17. Richard L. Matta’s haibun Uncle Eddie’s Falcon was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 19.
    
    
18. Mark Meyer’s haibun Texas Requiem was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 19.
    
    
19. Peter Newton’s haibun story Modern Gothic was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 18.
    
    
20. Peter Newton’s braided haibun story Rosebud was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 18.
    
    
21. Kelly Sargent’s haibun Birds of a Feather was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 20.
    
    
22. Lew Watts’ anomalous haibun Cruising Downtown Santa Fe was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
    
    
23. Rich Youmans’ braided haibun Through the Looking Glass was reprinted in Contemporary Haibun 17.
    
    
24. Rich Youmans’ anomalous haibun What’s Underneath was among the four recipients of The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun 2023.
    
    

The 24 haibun above are among 35 originally published in MacQueen’s Quinterly and subsequently reprinted across four issues (17 thru 20) of the Contemporary Haibun anthology, published by Red Moon Press.

(For links to nomination lists, see MacQ’s Anthology Awards Portal.)

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The following five haibun stories were first published in KYSO Flash (predecessor to MacQueen’s Quinterly):

• Camouflage by Charles Hansmann, published in Issue 3 (aka KF-3), was reprinted in The Best Small Fictions 2016 anthology (aka TBSF); and The Current Situation by Bob Lucky (from KF-4) was among the finalists listed in TBSF 2016.
  
  
• Picking Sunflowers for Van Gogh by Harriot West, published in KF-6, was reprinted in The Best Small Fictions 2017; and Hackmuth’s Mannequin Dream by Dan Gilmore (from KF-5) was among the finalists listed in TBSF 2017.
  
  
• After the Dream, the Dream Remains by Rich Youmans, published in KF-11, was reprinted in The Best Small Fictions 2020.
  
  

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Tips and Resources:

Those for whom these forms are new may be surprised to learn that:

• The plural of haibun is haibun, and “...the plural of haiku is haiku (think sheep and fish)...”
  
  Which is also true for cheribun and tanka: the plural is spelled the same as the singular.
  
  
• “...syllable counting is not at all an essential element to writing haiku well,” as poet and editor Lynne Rees writes (see link to her conference paper a few paragraphs below).
  
  

Here at MacQ, Clare MacQueen happily agrees: No need to adhere to the 5-7-5 syllabic structure—especially when doing so results in stilted or unnatural-sounding lines and/or unnecessary words.

Despite the ubiquitous, over-simplified definition of the haiku as an unrhymed poem consisting of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively, syllable count is not actually the defining factor. Three other elements are more important.

Effective haiku (1) convey a single moment of insight, (2) use concrete imagery, and (3) include two juxtaposing parts. All of this within a very compact space. (Preferably within one breath, which in English is 10-14 syllables).

For instance, this seven-syllable poem (1-3-3) by Nick Virgilio (1928–1989) first published in American Haiku (1963):

bass
picking bugs
off the moon

And this 12-syllable gem (3-4-5) by Roberta Beary, Clare’s all-time favorite haiku ever:

all day long
I feel its weight
the unworn necklace

(From Beary’s debut collection of haiku, The Unworn Necklace, now in its fifth printing and published by Snapshot Press.)

Of course, 5-7-5 can also produce lovely and effective haiku! Clare admires quite a few by Gary S. Rosin, in particular his ekphrastic poems and collaborative shahai published in MacQ. Here’s just a handful of examples:

1. (a shiver of moon)
   
   
2. (empty)
   
   
3. Floating (with Jana Craighead Smith)
   
   
4. Hey! (with Katherine Durham Oldmixon)
   
   
5. (origami cranes)
   
   
6. (whispers in the air)
   
   

(See also this sequence of 5-7-5 haiku by William Cullen, Jr.: Driving Cross Country, still a timely commentary eight years after its initial publication.)

Recommended reading about writing haiku:

1. The Haiku Foundation’s series New to Haiku: Advice for Beginners is posted every two to three weeks and features interviews with, and essays by, established haiku poets. As of today (22 August 2025), these are the latest entries:
   
   Tomislav Maretić (Zagreb, 1951), Croatian poet and infectious disease specialist, interviewed by Julie Bloss Kelsey (17 August 2025)
   
   Going Wide: Submitting Haiku in the General Poetry World (3 August 2025) by Kat Lehmann, winner of the 2024 Rattle Chapbook Prize for her haiku collection no matter how it ends a bluebird’s song
   
   
2. Haiku: a poetry of absence or an absence of poetry? (subtitled “Minimalism in Contemporary English Language Haiku”), a paper by poet and editor Lynne Rees presented at the PALA (Poetics and Linguistics Association) 2015 Conference at Canterbury University, Kent, United Kingdom (16 July 2015).
   
   The author’s goals, in part: to “illustrate that haiku can be, or should be muscular enough to withstand scrutiny, close reading” and to “expunge their reputation as mainstream poetry’s country bumpkin cousin: naïve and embarrassing to have around in sophisticated company.”

Recommended resources by expert practitioners of haibun and/or tanka prose:

1. Haibun: A Writer’s Guide by Roberta Beary, Lew Watts, and Rich Youmans; reviewed by Ce Rosenow in Issue 24 of MacQueen’s Quinterly (August 2024)
   
   
2. Plaiting Poem & Prose: The Art of Braided Haibun by Rich Youmans in contemporary haibun online (Issue 18.2, August 2022)
   
   
3. Why I Write Haibun, or The Holy Trinity of Haibun, essay and haibun by Roberta Beary in the debut issue of MacQueen’s Quinterly (1 January 2020); Beary is the long-time haibun editor at Modern Haiku and the co-author, with Lew Watts and Rich Youmans, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide, listed above.
   
   
4. 25 Tanka Prose: Introduction: TP or not TP, That Is the Question by Bob Lucky in contemporary haibun online (17:3, December 2021); reprinted from Atlas Poetica: A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka (July 2011).
   
   
5. Modern English-Language Haibun by Ray Rasmussen in KYSO Flash (Issue 5, Spring 2016); the author compares the haibun’s similarities and differences to flash fiction, short stories, and prose poetry in this excerpt from his collection of haibun, Landmarks (2015).
   
   
6. A Game of Tag: Gary LeBel on Tanka Prose, an interview by Patricia Prime in Haibun Today (Vol. 6, No. 3, September 2012), in which LeBel says that his works are “a mix of personal experience, thumbnail sketch, pure fiction, fantasy, boldface lie, story and/or myth (and often more than a pinch of hyperbole)...”
   
   
7. And finally, by J. Zimmerman, a summarized history of prose-with-poetry works in Classical, Modern, and Contemporary Japanese literary traditions; article includes references and a list of suggested readings: What English-Language Haibun Poets Can Learn From Japanese Practices: the Mysteries of an Almost-Heard Birdsong First Autumn Abroad in Contemporary Haibun Online (Vol. 9, No. 4, January 2014)
   

MacQ’s Submission Manager