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Last Updated on 14 January 2022

Zoe Grant

About Me

Welcome to my webpage!

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My name is Zoe Grant, and I am a 7-year-old haiku poet from Auckland, New Zealand. I am also a ballerina and flautist.

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I am the illustrator and co-author of 'Bat Girl' poetry book. I wrote the book with my mother Sherry Grant in 2020 when I was 6 years old.

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At the Drifting Sands Poetry Hub, you can read a bit more about my poetry journey in the form of haibun.

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Also you can read our interviews at the Great Margin (UK) and CAP Arts Centre (Northern Ireland).

Haiku & Senryu

snowy night --

the smell of

hot soup

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-- Zoe Grant, first prize winning haiku at 2021 NZPS International Haiku Competition (Junior/School Section), also published in 2021 NZPS Anthology

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I was very lucky to have won the first prize at a haiku competition in 2021, with a haiku written at school during my mum's poetry club. I even illustrated it when I first wrote the poem.

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After that I wrote more poems so I can publish a solo haiku collection of 100 haiku. I submitted to many journals when my mum submitted her poems too and some of my poems got published!

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A few more examples of my published haiku below.

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school swings

only pigeons

play

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-- first published at Stardust Haiku Journal, Issue 58, November 2021

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designer pants

grandma sews the holes

back up

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-- first published at Failed Haiku, Number 6, Issue 71, November 2021

 

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trick-or-treat

giving out candies

on zoom

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-- first published at Haiku Dialogue, 2021-11-03

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Chalk on the Walk Haiku

My mum and I started Chalk on the Walk Haiku Facebook Group at the end of August 2021, in the middle of a very long Auckland lockdown. 

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We enjoy bringing great haiku to the world by chalking and illustrating them outside our house, which has a long sidewalk. When fully chalked with haiku, there can be up to about 12 poems at a time, until the rain comes or we scrub if down with water, by hand! At some point we would like to get a water blaster to make our lives easier...

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We accept submission of up to 3 haiku and/or haiga/shahai per month from each poet (or they can share directly on the Facebook group page) with a short bio and any blog links/social media accounts (up to 5 but optional).

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chalkonthewalkhaiku(at)gmail(dot)com

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Chalk on the Walk Monoku

In the middle of September 2021, my sister Rebecca and I decided also start chalking monoku on our sidewalk separately, so we started Chalk on the Walk Monoku Facebook Group to share this unique form of one-line haiku. Rebecca and I have written a monoku sequence together which will get published at an anthology in Peru. I will add the poem (and its Spanish translation) here after publication.

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Submission can be sent to:

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chalkonthewalkmonoku(at)gmail(dot)com

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Bat Girl Book

In my first book Bat Girl, my mum and I wrote some poems in the short form and longer forms like sonnet. I did all the illustration including the book cover.

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An example from the book:

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snoring is boring

stranger beside you

suffering

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This was my favourite haiku in the book.

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Another example is a nonaku, a short poetry form invented by my mum in September 2021. My big sister Emily Grant made the logo for nonaku. Isn't it cool?

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Blanket Fish

(a nonaku)

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out of water​

swims a speical fish

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granted

life by

a little girl

waving invisible magic wand

imagination running rampant

blanket fish

born

Rengay

After publishing my first poetry book Bat Girl, I have been actively involved in the international haiku community and written many linked poems (mostly rengay) with my mum and her poet friends.

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I co-hosted two "Rengay Under the Moon" gatherings in September 2021 and attended the rengay session at Haiku North America in October 2021.

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Many of my haiku and rengay have been published at journals and anthologies around the world. Below is a rengay that I wrote with the inventor of rengay, Garry Gay and my mum, who translated it into traditional Chinese for publication.

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Between the Petals

a 3-person rengay

by Garry Gay (USA) + Zoe Grant (NZ) + Sherry Grant (NZ) (Op.2489) 2021-09-18

 

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sticky monkey flower

a checker-spot butterfly

colors the wind                          gg

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snapdragons

everywhere                                zg

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right on time

for a hot Christmas

pohutukawa                               sg 

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fairy lanterns

brighten the mountain path     gg

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dripping honey

under the sun ☀️ 

kōwhai blossoms                       zg 

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parrots fight among

kakabeak flowers                       sg

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花瓣之間

三人連軌詩

作者：蓋瑞·貴（美國）+ 陳紫瑄（紐西蘭）+ 火の鳥（紐西蘭）

中文翻譯：火の鳥

 

黏猴花間

格紋蛺蝶

替微風上色                            （蓋）

 

遍地開滿

龍頭花                                    （陳）

 

紐西蘭鐵心木

正好趕上炙熱的

聖誕節                                    （火）

 

仙女燈籠

照亮山間小道                        （蓋）

 

科槐花

金色陽光下

溢出的蜂蜜                            （陳）

 

鸚鵡在鸚喙

花叢中搏鬥                            （火）

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-- first published at the Bamboo Hut Journal, Number 3 2021

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My mum and I are planning to publish an annual rengay anthology, organise a new international annual rengay contest, and rengay gatherings in March and September each year.

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2022 will be the 30th birthday of rengay so we are currently preparing the wikipedia entry for rengay.

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