contemporary haibun online (cho) is a quarterly journal published in March, June, September and December of each year. Submissions are welcome at any time. If accepted, they will appear in one of the next three issues.

1. Blind Review Process

Content editors Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross and Ken Jones independently read submissions and indicate their decision to accept or not accept. If at least one editor accepts a haibun, it will be published in cho. If two or all three editors accept your haibun, it will also be published in the yearly print issue of contemporary haibun.

2. Submission Requirements

a. You may submit up to three haibun as long as you accept all terms found on this submissions guidelines page.

b. You may submit further haibun only after you have received notice of the decision on the haibun you have submitted. In short, we prefer to be dealing with only three haibun at a time for each writer.

c. You may submit only if the haibun is not currently in submission elsewhere. We do accept haibun that have been posted on Internet forums and on personal web sites that are not publication sites.

d. We will consider haibun that have been published elsewhere, but when you submit your haibun, you must inform us of the publication venue and date. If accepted, the haibun will be noted as previously published.

e. If your haibun has not been previously published, but the haiku has, you must inform us of the publication venue and date for the haiku, and if accepted, the haiku will be noted as previously published.

f. Once a haibun has been accepted, we reserve the right to publish the haibun in any of the next three issues of cho and in the annual print journal, contemporary haibun.

g. cho retains first rights, meaning that if your haibun is subsequently published elsewhere, cho must be cited as the original place of publication.

3. Submission Procedure

Submissions should be sent by email to senior editor Jim Kacian ( jim.kacian@comcast.net ). Your subject line should contain cho, your name, your haibun title and the date. Your submission email should look as follows:

TO: jim.kacian@comcast.net

SUBJECT: cho, your name, your haibun title, date

Example:

SUBJECT: cho, Barb Jones, The Valley, July 15, 2009

Place your haibun directly in the body of the email. If you wish, you may also attach a WORD or TEXT or RTF (rich text format) document. Do not submit PDF files. If you attach a document, name the file: "yourname_haibuntitle.doc" or "yourname_haibuntitle.txt" or "yourname_haibuntitle.rtf.

Example: "BarbJones_TheValley.doc"

In the body of the email, please state that you accept all terms stated on this page. If you do not make this statement, we will assume agreement.

4. Notification Timelines

You will be notified within a few weeks when Jim Kacian receives your submission. It will require at least an additional 30 days to notify you as to whether your submission has been accepted, accepted subject to revisions, or not accepted. Please be aware that at times, one or more of our editors are out of town and there could be delays in getting back to you.

5. Copy Editing & Format Issues

a. Contents Page Formatting: Some writers prefer not to capitalize names, titles, first words in sentences, etc. We will adhere to a writer's preferences on the page where his or her haibun appears, but the main contents page will have all names and titles capitalized in the normal way.

b. Copy Editing: Beginning with issue 5:4, all work will be copy (not content) edited by a professional editor. Because of the time delays caused by exchanging emails about copy editing, we will not vet the editing with the writer prior to publication. However, if upon viewing their work in an issue writers feel strongly about any copyediting changes that have been made, they can contact cho and we will make changes that are deemed necessary. But once a piece has been accepted and formatted for the journal, we will not make content changes except under unusual circumstances.

c. Special Characters. It is our preference not to utilize diacritics (symbols added to letters, such as macrons and accents). There are several reasons. First, the html computer language used to format webpages doesn't handle them well. Some browsers, for example, will show Basho as Bashô or as Bashō, while others will substitute a "?" for the diacritic as in "Bash?". In addition, it is difficult and time-consuming for the volunteer webmaster to format pages containing diacritics. Third, while such symbols represent pronunciation guides for Japanese speakers, they have little meaning for English-language speakers, most of whom will pronounce Basho, Bashô or Bashō in the same way.

6. Copyright

cho retains the right to republish accepted work in future issues and/or to publish it in the print journal contemporary haibun. Otherwise, the writer retains full rights to his or her haibun. However, if the haibun is published elsewhere, standard publishing procedure demands that cho be listed as the first place of publication if that is the case.

7. Problems

For issues relating to the presentation of your work on the cho pages, please contact technical editor (webmaster) Ray Rasmussen and use cho in the subject line.

For issues related to copy editing, please contact copy editor Joyce Hildebrand and use cho in the subject line.

For issues related to an acceptance that has not appeared or to the status of a submission, please contact content editor Jim Kacian and use cho in the subject line.