This site has always featured quite a bit haiku content. You may have noticed that most of the recent haiku have featured images of the said haiku in my own handwriting. The idea came from a post on Colin Devroe’s blog First initial, last name, and it kind of stuck.

A few friends have been kind enough to send their own handwritten offerings, which have been posted as part of what I call the “secondhand” series. It’s been great to see others revealing not only their take on the haiku, but also the added personality of their handwritten words. (Click here to check out the series so far.)

Since I’ve received questions from other people wanting to take part, I thought it might be useful to lay out a three basic answers to get potential contributors started:

1. How long will contributions be accepted?

   The series is ongoing. Contributions will be considered for the foreseeable future (if this page is still here, I’m probably still taking them).

2. How should contributions be submitted?

   Preferably by email. The address is “howard[@]nonbreakingspace.com” (remove brackets before emailing). Images should be attached in JPEG (.jpg) format.

   Because I include a text version of the contributions along with the images, I ask contributors to type out their haiku in the body of the email. And because I want to properly attribute all contributions, I ask authors to clearly state how they want to be credited (name to be used, and if applicable, a web address so I can include a link).

   If you send a contribution, I will send you a reply to let you know I’ve received it. If you don’t receive the reply, you can use the email form on this site to follow up and make sure I received your submission.

3. Do the contributions have to be in strict haiku format?

   Not necessarily. Though I write most of my haiku in 5-7-5 format, I will consider any format (including non-haiku forms if you feel so inclined) as long as it is brief and the original work of the person contributing it.

Any further questions can be sent to the address above. They can also be sent via this site’s email form.