Award-Winning Author Laurel McHargue Launches Haiku Contest

Ex-teacher and author Laurel McHargue understands bell-to-bell instruction. During her teaching years, she was always on the lookout for easy classroom warm-ups, unique full class assignments, short homework assignments, and easy-to-implement substitute/guest teacher lessons. She created Hai CLASS ku for today's teachers and added an incentive: a chance for students to see their work published in an anthology by December 2017.

The workbook is designed for teachers to use in any classes in which cross-curricular learning and instruction is expected. Primarily suited for English language teachers, it is an equally good resource for math and art classes. There are 90 pages on which students can complete one 17-syllable poem (the first line of 5 syllables is provided as a "starter" prompt), draw a sketch, and journal about their inspiration for their final creation.

"Seeing your work published in a legitimate book is thrilling, and I'd love to share that excitement with students," McHargue said when asked about the National Contest component of her new book. "I hope teachers will submit their students' best pages from the workbook for a chance to be published in an anthology of exemplars by December 2017. If a teacher thinks a product is worth using as an example for others, my judges will probably agree!" She encourages teachers to have fun with this unique workbook.

"I designed this to be a semester-length workbook, one that could be used in and out of the classroom," McHargue said. "Some of the first lines are quite silly, but some may take students to poignant places . . . and if their last line surprises them, they've captured a more complex essence of haiku."

This is not just for students, however. Those who enjoy crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and other brain game books might add this haiku starter book to their stockpile. "It's great for long trips, backpacks, purses, bathrooms . . . wherever you have some time to kill." McHargue said she encouraged her 87-year-old mother to write haiku year ago, and the two exchange their poems over phone visits now. Writing haiku poems can be addictive, and for that, Haikus Can Amuse! 366 Haiku Starters provides an entire Leap Year's worth of haiku starter prompts.

When asked about the odd price for this semester-length workbook, McHargue said, "Because, you know, HAIKU! Five, seven, five!" She also wanted to ensure price would not be a detractor. "And Alpha Peak will sell the anthology of exemplars at cost. We want every student to be able to buy a copy with their work in it without stressing over the expense."

Author Laurel McHargue is an ex-teacher who understands and has written about the challenges in today's classrooms and hopes to make teachers' lives just a little bit easier. She published her award-winning novel Waterwight: Book I of the Waterwight Series February 29th, 2016, with language arts classes in mind. Follow her humorous blogs about life, real and imagined, and sign up for her newsletter at http://www.leadvillelaurel.com. Contact her with questions or for speaking engagements and classroom visits. Her books are available from Ingram and Amazon.

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