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POETRY submissions Are open

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

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Shō Poetry Journal is a nonprofit print journal emerging from a 20-year hibernation. We publish an eclectic range of poetry twice a year and publish audio features on a rolling basis. We strive to champion voices that have been historically underrepresented or overlooked. Browse a list of our contributors and follow us on Instagram for updates.

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"Hopi Leia" relief print by Hopi artist Sikuyva Dawavendewa

FORTHCOMING ISSUE

Shō No. 8

winter 2025/2026

This issue features 72 poems by 48 poets: Sean Cho A. • Hiwot Adilow • Elisa Luna Ady • courtney alyce • Seth Amos • Jack B. Bedell • Shlagha Borah • Apollo Chastain • Lyn Li Che • Chen Chen • Stephanie Choi • Lindsay D’Andrea • Loisa Fenichell • Cheyenne C. Fletcher • Reuben Gelley Newman • Carlos Andrés Gómez • Iain Grinbergs • Shira Leah Haus • Sarah Jordan • Joan Naviyuk Kane • Aiman Tahir Khan • Sophie Klahr • Whitney Koo • Giljoon Lee • Elizabeth Loudon • Betsy Mitchell Martinez • Rebecca Morton • Lisa Mottolo • James O’Leary • Mollie O’Leary • william o’neal ii • Konstantinos Patrinos • Ngoc Pham • Jessica Nirvana Ram • Jemma Leigh Roe • Adrie Rose • Rukan Saif • SM Stubbs • Virgil Suárez • Will Summay • Tiezst “Tie” Taylor • Tianyi • Reed Turchi • Margaret Wack • Joey Wańczyk • Gwenyth Wheat • Ross White • Yan Zhang

Cover art: “Hopi Leia” by Sikuyva Dawavendewa.

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A girl in a long white dress and a bird head mask sits on a bough under a full moon in a night forest landscape. Her hands are folded in her lap and her feet can't be seen. Text says: Shō Poetry Journal No. 7 Summer 2025.

CURRENT ISSUE

Shō No. 7

SUMMER 2025

This issue features 67 poems by 48 poets, including:

– Christian J. Collier (Winner, Shō Poetry Prize)
– Aldo Amparán (Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up)
– Ohia, Ernest Chigaemezu (Winner, Sita Martin Prize)
– Nina C. Peláez (Sita Martin Prize Runner-Up)

Cover art: “Interim” by Tanya Rastogi.

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Online Features

  • Dec 26, 2025

    Betsy Mitchell Martinez – Self-Portrait as Frida Kahlo with Prickly Pear [Shō Poetry Prize Winner]

  • Dec 26, 2025

    Cheyenne C. Fletcher – Lady of the Holler [Winner of the Sita Martin Prize]

  • Dec 24, 2025

    Rebecca Morton – Uncertainty Principle [Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up]

  • Dec 22, 2025

    Rukan Saif — Harami Ghazal [Sita Martin Prize Runner-Up]

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Past Issues

Shō No. 6

Winter 2024/2025

Shō No. 6 features 57 poems by 40 poets.

Cover art: “In Gilded Walls” by Tanya Rastogi.

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Shō No. 5

Summer 2024

Shō No. 5 features 68 poems by 47 poets.

Cover art: “Lucy” by Harim Choi.

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Shō No. 4

Winter 2023/2024

Illustration of girl wearing a large deer head mask with antlers. She is clothed in a dark blue tshirt and pants and stands in a high desert landscape, holding plastic flowers. A ghostly girl’s head is placed beside her in the grass.

Shō No. 4 features 73 poems by 47 poets.

Cover art: “Girl with Deer Mask” by Harim Choi.

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Shō No. 3

Summer/Fall 2023

Shō No. 3 features 62 poems by 42 poets.

Cover art: “Grandfather Autumn” by Juanita Violini.

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Betsy Mitchell Martinez was selected as the winner Betsy Mitchell Martinez was selected as the winner of the Shō Poetry Prize for three poems. Read her poem “Self-Portrait as Frida Kahlo with Prickly Pear” here or on our website. All three of her poems are published in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26).

About this poem: When my daughter was in preschool, she became obsessed with Frida Kahlo. We read Frida books daily, and I often had to modify or omit portions of the books to make them suitable for a 3-year-old audience. Even with the modifications, we had a lot of surprising conversations about physical pain (e.g., what does "wounded" mean? what is amputation?), mental pain (why was Frida sad?), and art (why does Frida paint herself crying?). I found myself thinking about these things after my daughter went to bed, and I began to write poems, sometimes in Frida's imagined voice, to explore the connections between pain and art.

Betsy Mitchell Martinez holds an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Rattle, New Letters, Shenandoah, Washington Square Review, Southeast Review, Redivider, EPOCH, and elsewhere.
Cheyenne C. Fletcher was selected as the winner of Cheyenne C. Fletcher was selected as the winner of the Sita Martin Prize for three poems. Here she is reading “Lady of the Holler”—read all three poems in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/2026)!

About this poem: The beginnings of this poem happened in Gabrielle Bates’ craft course on image, sound, syntax, and the line offered by Hugo House which I attended with support from the organization.

Cheyenne C. Fletcher is a poet, auntie, educator, and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She’s an MFA candidate at the University of San Francisco.
Thank you to everyone who was standing by, waiting Thank you to everyone who was standing by, waiting to submit—our cap for free submissions has been reached! It took 12 minutes (what?!)

Regular submissions are still open; we respond within 30 days or less and are reading through the holidays.

Submissions are always free for U.S. Indigenous poets.
Rebecca Morton is the runner-up of the Shō Poetry Rebecca Morton is the runner-up of the Shō Poetry Prize for three poems titled “Uncertainty Principle.” Here’s one of them—look out for all three in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/2026).

Rebecca Morton is a queer poet based in Chicago. Her debut chapbook Afterbirth (Small Harbor Press, 2024) explores her family’s involvement in the foster care system. Her poems appear in Smartish Pace, The Offing, Sugar House Review, Cream City Review, RHINO, TriQuarterly, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere, and have been featured on Verse Daily. A recent Tin House Summer Workshop participant, she holds an MFA from Eastern Washington University.
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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

327

Poems Published

224

Total Poets Published

103

Audio Features Published

42

Poems Nominated for Prizes

2

Poems chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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