Frequently Asked Questions

It is an international online literary festival where youth and young adults create Korea Haiku in Korean and share their observations of nature, seasons, everyday life, life, and peace. The official competition judges and awards final Korean-language works.

Youth and young adults worldwide may participate regardless of nationality, country of residence, first language, or length of Korean study. The general upper age guideline for the young adult division is 30, with reasonable adjustments possible for different national education systems.

Adults outside the competition age range may join the Festival Lounge through Guest Haiku or One Line from the Heart. These are celebratory exchange activities and are not judged or awarded.

Yes. Overseas entrants join the youth or young adult division according to age and are judged on the same final Korean-language work. Nationality or native-language status alone does not add or subtract points.

No. Minors may participate only through a school, institution, organization, teacher, or other responsible body using the group-submission route. The same rule applies to overseas minors.

Schools and classes, literary clubs, Korean-language or Korean-culture institutions, arts education organizations, youth institutions, public or nonprofit bodies, supervised official groups, and comparable overseas educational or cultural institutions may submit.

Yes. University students, graduate students, and other young adults up to age 30 may apply individually, including overseas young adults.

Choose Young Adult Individual Entry, verify an email address, enter the Korean three-line work, season word and season category, optionally add an English reference translation and work note, confirm copyright and AI/translation ethics, submit, and keep the receipt number.

The group representative collects and checks each Korean three-line work and season word, organizes any optional English translation and work note, enters group and representative information, confirms the ethics standards, submits the group entry, and retains the submission record.

The judged and awarded authoritative text must be a Korean-language work directly created, understood, and finally confirmed by the entrant. The official competition does not offer an original-language selector; the final Korean work is required.

Yes. You may plan the scene and thought in English or another language and consult dictionaries, grammar references, translation tools, or AI translation. However, you must understand, revise, choose, and finally confirm the meaning and wording of every Korean line yourself.

No. It is an optional aid for international understanding, online display, and publicity. It receives no separate score or award, and judging is based only on the final Korean work.

The official competition accepts only final Korean-language works. Original haiku in Japanese or other languages may be shared in the Festival Lounge as noncompetitive Guest Haiku.

Write three Korean lines—opening, middle, and closing—with a 5-7-5 rhythm as the basic principle. About one syllable of adjustment per line may be accepted for natural Korean particles and endings, but the work should not become free verse or prose poetry.

Yes. Each official competition work must contain at least one season word and enter it separately. The season word should shape the work’s temporal, natural, or everyday background rather than serve as decoration.

No. A title is optional and is not counted in the syllabic rhythm. If used, a short title that does not over-explain the poem is recommended.

One to three works may be submitted. An English reference translation does not count as another entry, and the same Korean work may not be duplicated with different translations. As a rule, one person may receive an award for one work.

The note helps judges understand the background but cannot replace the work’s literary quality. A 100- to 300-Korean-character explanation focused on the observed scene, seasonal feeling, and creative intention is recommended.

Allowed uses include checking spelling, spacing, grammar, particles and endings; confirming word meaning and pronunciation; consulting a Korean translation draft of text you wrote yourself; checking intended meaning; and researching season words, nature, or cultural background.

You may not submit an AI-generated Korea Haiku, change only a few words in AI text, choose one poem from several AI outputs, or translate or modify an AI- or third-party-created work and present it as your own.

Not automatically. Honest disclosure of supportive tool use does not itself create a penalty. A work may be excluded, however, if its scene, structure, core expression, or final Korean wording was effectively created by AI, a translation tool, or another person.

Limited advice on spelling, grammar, or word meaning is allowed. A teacher, mentor, or translator may not write the whole work or substantially rewrite it for the entrant.

No. Entries must be the entrant’s own unpublished works. Another person’s work, a previously published work, a prior competition winner, unauthorized translation, ghostwritten work, or duplicate submission may be excluded or have an award revoked.

Only the minimum information needed for submission and judging is collected. A youth entrant’s real name, full birth date, personal contact details, and guardian data are generally not collected at the initial stage. Additional identity, affiliation, contact, and certificate information may be requested only from awardees.

Guardian details are generally not collected during initial submission. If a minor becomes an awardee, separate consent may be requested for award confirmation, certificate issuance, publication and nonprofit use of the work, and personal-data processing.

Submission details may be edited during the entry period. After the deadline, substantive changes are generally prohibited; only clear typographical or entry-information errors may be corrected after committee review. The poem, season word, and 5-7-5 structure may not be materially changed.

Entry is free in principle. Separate details may be announced if optional programs, offline events, souvenirs, or printed-material delivery are offered.

The call, entry period, judging, award announcement, online exhibition, and record-preservation schedule will be announced later on the official website and may change according to operations.

Judges consider the Korean three-line form and basic 5-7-5 rhythm, season-word use, direct observation, creativity, transition and openness, concise and natural Korean, relation to the festival themes, and ethical compliance including plagiarism, ghostwriting, and direct AI generation.

No. It is only a supporting aid for meaning and international understanding. Every official entry is judged on the final Korean-language work.

The guideline provides KRW 1.2 million for one Grand Prize, KRW 500,000 each for two First Prizes, KRW 200,000 each for four Excellence Awards, KRW 100,000 for one Future Creativity Special Award, and KRW 100,000 for one Judges’ Special Award. Categories and numbers may be adjusted.

Copyright remains with the creator in principle. By submitting, the entrant grants the Korea Haiku Federation a nonexclusive right to use the Korean work and optional English translation for festival operation, publicity, preservation, education, research, and nonprofit cultural exchange.

Yes. An award may be revoked if the awardee cannot be verified, submitted information is false, or plagiarism, ghostwriting, unauthorized translation, duplicate submission, direct AI generation, or another copyright or ethics violation is discovered.

It is a separate noncompetitive, non-award exchange space. Haiku and short poems in any language may be submitted, and the original and a Korean translation may be displayed together.

It may be included in a festival record book or exchange material after committee review. It remains outside official judging and awards, and works that violate publication or ethics standards may be withheld or removed.