(Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News)<\/p>\n
Something wicked this way comes, and it\u2019s 5-7-5.<\/p>\n
Our annual Halloween haiku contest is back, and we\u2019re once again summoning readers to turn the horrors of healthcare into three tiny lines of poetry. Surprise us with a verse about medical bills, insurance, hospitals, health policy, or whatever else keeps you up at night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re inspired by a botched surgery, a ghastly charge, or insurance-induced existential dread, we want to read about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our newsroom\u2019s panel of judges will choose their favorites, which we\u2019ll share on our social channels. Winning haikus will be announced on Friday, Oct. 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rules:<\/strong><\/p>\n Submit your haiku to https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/contact-haiku\/<\/a>, along with the link to the related KFF Health News article.<\/p>\n \u201cLike\u201d KFF Health News<\/a> on Facebook, and follow @KFFHealthNews<\/a> on X, @kffhealthnews.org<\/a> on Bluesky, and @kffhealthnews<\/a> on Instagram.<\/p>\n (Optional) Include your X, Bluesky, or Instagram handle in the submission and let us know if it\u2019s OK to give you a shoutout on social media.<\/p>\n Submit your haiku by the witching hour, 11:59 p.m. ET, on Monday, Oct. 19.<\/p>\n To win, the haiku should meet the following criteria:<\/p>\n Follow the format of a haiku (a three-line poem with 17 syllables, written in a 5\/7\/5-syllable count).<\/p>\n Contain information related to healthcare and\/or health policy that follows the scary\/Halloween theme.<\/p>\n Reference a KFF Health News story in the haiku \u2014 as a bonus.<\/p>\n No use of artificial intelligence is allowed. Entries created or modified by AI will not be considered.<\/p>\n Submissions may be lightly edited for style and clarity before publication.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Prizes:<\/strong><\/p>\n The top three haikus will rise again with a custom comic illustration drawn by staff illustrator Oona Zenda. The grand-prize-winning haiku will be featured in the KFF Health News Morning Briefing<\/a> on Friday, Oct. 30, and we will give the author a shoutout \u2014 or hair-raising scream \u2014 on our social media pages, using the hashtag #HealthcareScare.<\/p>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Sasha Zitter)<\/p>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Siri Palreddy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Tom Cook)<\/p>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Brynne McBride)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Micki Jackson)<\/p>\n (Illustration: Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News; Haiku: Michael L. Millenson)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Oona Zenda\/KFF Health News) Something wicked this way comes, and it\u2019s 5-7-5. Our annual Halloween haiku contest is back, and we\u2019re once again summoning readers to turn the horrors of healthcare into three tiny lines of poetry. Surprise us with a verse about medical bills, insurance, hospitals, health policy, or whatever else keeps you up…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2025 Halloween Haiku Contest Winners<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2024 Halloween Haiku Contest Winners<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2023 Halloween Haiku Contest Winners<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2022 Halloween Haiku Contest Winners<\/strong><\/h2>\n