Home > Newsroom > Golden Triangle in D.C. Announces Winners of 2017 Golden Haiku Contest
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 27, 2017 – The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) is pleased to announce the 2017 winners of its 4th Annual Golden Haiku contest. An internationally recognized panel of haiku experts selected the contest’s First, Second, and Third Place Local Winners, as well as a Global Winner. The panel also chose an additional 90-plus poems that it found to be especially deserving of recognition. This year’s contest created record-setting interest, with more than 1,200 entrants.
The winning poems and more than 90 others cited for recognition, will be displayed on signs sprouting in flowerbeds within the 43-block Golden Triangle BID, stretching from the White House to Dupont Circle. Signs are being installed the week of February 27 and will remain in place for four weeks, visible to thousands of pedestrians passing through the district each day.
“The Golden Haiku is not only a contest, but a temporary community literary arts project that can add a touch of warmth to someone’s chilly commute or put a smile on a jogger’s face during their morning run,” said Leona Agouridis, Golden Triangle BID Executive Director. “We are thrilled by the community spirit generated through this act of collective creativity and appreciate all of those who participated.”
The annual haiku contest is one of a series of events initiated by the Golden Triangle BID to drive the economic development, community engagement and positive sense of place in Washington, D.C.’s central business district. These include Farragut Fridays, which are hosted each week in Farragut Square Park from May through September, and the Golden Cinema, a series of free movies every Friday evening, June through early August, also in Farragut Park.
This year’s entries to the Golden Haiku content were centered on a garden theme. As is customary with contemporary Haiku, poems were to be three short lines each, but were not required to adhere to the 5-7-5 syllable rule. The winning entries are showcased below. Four winning authors will receive gift cards redeemable at selected businesses in the Golden Triangle including Chocolate Chocolate, Grooming Lounge, Proper Topper, and Tiny Jewel Box.
Local 1st Place: Sandip Chauhan (Great Falls, Va.)
sprouting grass . . . a soft breeze blows past the horse’s ears
Local 2nd Place: Mark E. Brager (Columbia, Md.) winter garden a harvest of long shadows
Local 3rd Place: Trish Bright (Baltimore, Md.) aroma lingers long after washing hands, wild chives
Global winner: Michele L. Harvey (Hamilton, NY) heaping manure around the roses… spring equinox
This year’s entries were judged by the following distinguished poets:
Abigail Friedman is the author of The Haiku Apprentice: Memoirs of Writing Poetry in Japan (Stone Bridge Press); I Wait for the Moon: 100 Haiku of Momoko Kuroda (Stone Bridge Press); and Street Chatter Fading (Larkspur Press). She is on the Board of Trustees of the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C., and, in 2014, she founded The Wisteria Group.
John Stevenson is managing editor of The Heron’s Nest. A former President of the Haiku Society of America, he has served as editor of Frogpond. John Stevenson is the author of books such as “Quiet Enough,” “Some of the Silence,” “Live Again,” and “(d)ark” and will be judging from Albany, New York.
Kit Pancoast Nagamura has been a columnist for The Japan Times for over a decade, and appears as a regular on NHK WORLD‘s “HAIKU MASTERS” and “Journeys in Japan” programs. She is a recent prize winner in Japan’s prestigious Ito-en Oi Cha Haiku Contest, a member of the Haiku International Association, and will be judging from Japan.
For more information about Golden Haiku, visit https://goldentriangledc.com/haiku.
About the Golden Triangle BID
The Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) is a non-profit corporation that works to enhance the Golden Triangle — the 43-block neighborhood that stretches from the front yard of the White House to Dupont Circle. The primary focus of the BID is to provide a clean, safe, and vibrant environment within this remarkable neighborhood, and to retain and attract businesses to the Golden Triangle. Founded in 1997, the Golden Triangle BID encourages economic development through capital improvement projects, a variety of engaging events, and public art projects. The BID connects its members to numerous resources, events, and information in and around the neighborhood and strives to increase quality of life through public safety and maintenance services. Together with corporate and government partners, the BID develops and implements programs that strengthen the vitality of the Golden Triangle. Learn more at: https://goldentriangledc.com
Media contacts:
Steve Simon ssimon@goldentriangledc.com 202-463-6986
Mittie Rooney mrooney@axcomgroup.com 301-602-8709
