Welcome to the 2026 Team
Don't let the timing of this post fool you: all of the guest editor slots filled up within four days of me announcing them! We have a few familiar faces as well as a number of new-to-us editors. Plus, we're launching a new feature: a special haiga week!
2026 Guest Editors
June 1st - 7th: Allyson Whipple
June 8th - 14th: Melissa Dennison
June 15th-21st: C.X. Turner
June 22nd - 28th: Sangita Kalarickal
June 29th - July 5th: Richa Sharma
July 6th - 12th: Kathryn Haydon
July 13th - 19th: Vidya Shankar
July 20th - 26th: Melanie Alberts (Special haiga week – See details below)
July 27th - August 2nd: Adele Evershed
August 3rd - 9th: Caroline Wermuth
August 10th - 16th: SJ Pardo Irigoyen
August 17th - 23rd: Iliyana Stoyanova
August 24th - 30th: Jennifer Gurney
Richa Sharma Name Editorial Assistant
I'm happy to welcome Richa Sharma to serve as the Haiku Girl Summer editorial assistant.
Richa's Bio
Richa Sharma (She/Her) resides in the National Capital Region of India. Since 2019, her work has been published in many online and print journals, contests, and anthologies that focus on Japanese short-form poetry. Her detailed author biography is available on her personal blog: https://richasharmahaiku.blogspot.com
New for 2026: Haiga Week
Guest editor Melanie Alberts will be creating special haiga-only issues the week of July 20th - 26th. We have a special submission process for this week. Please review the haiga guidelines below.
Please note that a submission for Haiga Week does not count toward your three (3) total submissions of haiku and senryu throughout the summer.
Haiga Week Submission Guidelines
- Haiku Girl Summer does not permit the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creation or editing of either text or art in a haiga.
- Haiga Week submissions open along with the regular haiku and senryu submissions on May 15th, 2026.
- You may submit one (1) submission of up to five (5) haiga.
- Haiga must be previously unpublished.
- Submissions must be received no later than 11:59 pm Central time July 19th, 2026.
- Send your haiga via email to editor@9squarepress.com and CC melaniealbertsmedium@gmail.com.
- Haiga should be sent as either PNG or JPEG files, with a minimum of 600 x 600 px.
- Submit your haiga as attachments.
- Both solo-creator and collaborative haiku are welcome.
- As a reminder, Haiku Girl Summer only publishes work from women-identifying poets. For collaborative haiku, both parties should identify as women. (Haiku Girl Summer is a trans-inclusive publication.)
- While haiga do not have to be branded with the writer’s/artist’s name(s), please be sure that all parties in a collaborative haiku are named clearly in your submission so we can credit appropriately.
- We encourage all poets and artists to include their location, though this is not required. Our preferred format is City, State/Region, Country.
