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POETRY submissions REopen DECEMBER 15

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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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

  • Nov 4, 2025

    A Conversation with Arah Ko

  • Oct 30, 2025

    Native American Heritage Month 2025

  • Oct 30, 2025

    Shō Poetry Journal Family

  • Oct 30, 2025

    Audio Feature: Saddiq Dzukogi

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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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Shō Poetry Journal on Instagram

shopoetryjournal

We were excited to learn that several other Shō P We were excited to learn that several other Shō Poetry Journal contributors will be featured in Best Spiritual Literature 2025, which is available for preorder from @orisonbooks!

Congratulations to:
– Hannah Keziah Agustin (@quichesiya)
– Sati Mookherjee (@satimookherjee)
– Mollie O'Leary (@molliepoleary) for “Late Summer Study” published in Shō No. 4
– Andrew Payton

Get your copy at orisonbooks.com
Shō No. 8 is coming along! Issue Updates: • T Shō No. 8 is coming along!

Issue Updates:

• The first round of Shō No. 8 proofs have been sent to most of our 48 contributors. @domkeykong is aiming to email everyone by Thursday evening (11/6)

• Coming in December: Cover Reveal + Announcement of our editors’ prize winners

General Updates:

• Our team will meet this month to discuss our Pushcart Prize nominations

• Our next reading period will start on December 15 and run until March 15, 2026

• You know I read it in a magaziiiiine, oooooh ho

#poetrycommunity
Next up is a prose poem by J.K. Tsosie—“THE TR Next up is a prose poem by J.K. Tsosie—“THE TRUE PARADISES ARE THE PARADISES WE HAVE LOST.” Read on! 🪐

About this poem: The title is a quote from Proust — written in French, there have been disagreements over its English translation, but I consider this the most correct. The poem was originally part of an essay I was writing about war and how I did not really understand my father until I joined the military in an attempt to follow in his footsteps. Like most queer men, my relationship with my father has been at times, very contentious. As his only son, I never really lived up to his expectations of traditional masculinity. Similarly to the Proust quote, I found myself living in the past, always trying to live up to this imagined obligation. In the end, I found this section tangential to the essay and decided to make it a stand-alone poem. I never really tried to know my parents until adulthood — this poem is about how much we have learned about each other in the past few years. When I was asked to record this poem, I wanted to layer in the sound of Saturn’s rings into the background — I was drawn to this idea of my father as the vast universe and myself as a mere satellite.*

*As an engineer/scientist, I was immediately in awe when NASA released the sounds of Saturn’s rings — there is an eerie aura about it, a palpable isolation. Of course, I wanted to know how the sound was captured given that there is no air in space. NASA was able to achieve this by converting electromagnetic waves, basically light, into audible frequencies.

J.K. Tsosie (@jktsosie) is a member of the Navajo Nation — Bitterwater Clan, born for the Many Goats Clan. His work has appeared in Shō Poetry Journal, the Yellow Medicine Review, and the Indiana Review. He is a recipient of the Oberon Herbert Prize, the James Hearst Poetry Prize, and the James Welch Prize for Indigenous Poets. He resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Tiwa Territory) where he is completing an MD/PhD at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
Next up is Sofia Rasic with “Ambedo,” recently Next up is Sofia Rasic with “Ambedo,” recently published in Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025). This is Sofia's first pub—please show her some love!

About this Poem: I don’t think there was one specific moment that inspired this piece. I wrote “Ambedo” in my boarding school dorm room, completely homesick and reminiscing about my childhood in the Hudson Valley. After being away from home for so long, even the smallest change feels disorienting, because in your mind, your hometown stays exactly as you left it. This poem is my attempt to put words to that distance– to the hesitancy to cope with change and the ache of realizing that nothing, not even home, stays the same.

Sofia Rasic (@rasic.writing) is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, but hails from the Hudson Valley, New York, and attends school in northwest Connecticut. Though she finds small pieces of herself scattered across many miles, she always returns to creative writing to feel grounded.
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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

327

Poems Published

224

Total Poets Published

94

Audio Features Published

42

Poems Nominated for Prizes

2

Poems chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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