The 2021 UkiaHaiku Festival (UHF) will be produced as an online virtual event hosted by our outgoing Ukiah Poet Laureate, Roberta Werdinger, and conducted by our incoming Poet Laureate, Melissa Eleftherion Carr. It will take place at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 25th. In the tradition of past festivals, the event will be open to all ages (we encourage children & young adults to participate).

This year, participants will read one haiku at a time in a round-robin format. We’re requesting folks to read no more than three haiku in total. We’ll read in successive rounds until we’ve heard all the haiku. Time permitting, organizers will also read haiku from past UHF winners and/or from Japanese masters such as Basho, Buson and Issa.

If you’d like to participate in this year’s UHF, please email Roberta Werdinger: rwerdinger@pacific.net. When she receives your RSVP email, she’ll send you a Zoom link. Please mark your calendar with it. We’ll figure out the order of readers once we’ve all assembled on Zoom.

We look forward to joining you in a celebration of UkiaHaiku!