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OUR SUMMER ISSUE IS ALMOST HERE! PRE-ORDER HERE: SHŌ NO. 9

POETRY submissions are OPEn!

congratulations to erica dawson on winning a pushcart prize!
listen to her poem here.

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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Past Looking by Nara Allsop

CURRENT ISSUE

Shō No. 9

SUMMER 2026

This issue features 69 poems by 45 poets: Conal Abatangelo • Jessica Ballen • Anne Barngrover • Madeleine Bazil • Finnegan Bly • Jackson Burgess • Isha Camara • Piera Chen • Shelbi Church • Jordan Cobb • David Eileen • Liv Evans • Allison Field Bell • Emily Harman • Rebecca Hawkes • Kiyanna Hill • Xinyue Huang • Lucas Jorgensen • Sophie Kaiser Rojas • Sheema Kalbasi • Eli Karren • Elina Katrin • Collin Kim • Victoria Kornick • Carolene Kurien • Ethan Kwak • Alice Liang • Jenny Molberg • Ruby Hansen Murray • Adeniyi Odukoya • Rebecca Hart Olander • Misha Ponnuraju • Jenny Sadre-Orafai • Brooke Sahni • Sloane Scott • Alia Shaukat • Jacob Herrera Spears • Nora Sullivan • Aspen Taylor • Gordon Taylor • Preeti Vangani • Jeff Whitney • Andrew Chi Keong Yim • Hananah Zaheer • Joshua Zeitler

Cover art: Past Looking by Nara Allsop

Pre-Order now
"Hopi Leia" relief print by Hopi artist Sikuyva Dawavendewa

PREVIOUS 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.

Order now

Online Features

  • Jun 23, 2026

    Contributors’ Notes, Shō No. 9

  • Jun 5, 2026

    A Conversation with Mckendy Fils-Aimé

  • May 30, 2026

    Pride Month Playlist | 2026

  • Apr 29, 2026

    Mental Health Awareness Month Playlist

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Past Issues

Shō No. 7

Winter 2025/2026

Shō No. 7 features 67 poems by 48 poets.

Cover art: “Interim” by Tanya Rastogi

Purchase Now

Shō No. 6

Winter 2024/2025

Shō No. 6 features 57 poems by 40 poets.

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

Purchase Now

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 Poetry Journal on Instagram

shopoetryjournal

Elina Katrin was selected as the runner-up of the Elina Katrin was selected as the runner-up of the Shō Poetry Prize for her poem “Beach Day with Tsvetaeva,” forthcoming in Shō No. 9 (Summer 2026). This poem will also appear in her debut full-length collection “Overwintered” (forthcoming from Trio House Press, 2027).

About this Poem: Reading Marina Tsvetaeva, I found so much kinship with the poet, even though her life in emigration was so different from mine in immigration. Then, suddenly, the sheer act of comparing our experiences existing outside of Russia felt absurd to me, the inherent ridiculousness of comparing my life in America to the extent of Tsvetaeva's suffering. I wrote "Beach Day with Tsvetaeva" almost as an apology letter to the poet, a medium that allowed for honesty, and the contrast of our lived experiences could be slightly more justified. The poem begins with “a fusion of inspirations and sinews,” which is a line I imperfectly translated from Tsvetaeva’s “Рас-стояние: версты, мили…” (“Di-stance: versts, miles…”), a poem she wrote for Boris Pasternak when she was in the Czech Republic and he lived in the USSR.

Elina Katrin (@elinatkatrin) is a Syrian-Russian immigrant writer. She’s the author of Overwintered (forthcoming from Trio House Press in 2027) and a poetry chapbook If My House Has a Voice (Newfound, 2023). Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. A recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Lambda Literary, Vermont Studio Center, and Periplus, she works and organizes with Mizna as an Assistant Editor. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, with a dream and her cardigan.

#poetsandpoetry #poetry #voiceofpoets
Ethan Kwak was selected as the runner-up of the Si Ethan Kwak was selected as the runner-up of the Sita Martin Prize for his poems “Untitled by Rothko, 1968” and “On Baldness.” Read/listen to him read his poem “Untitled by Rothko, 1968.” Find both poems in print in Shō No. 9: https://tinyurl.com/shono9

Ethan Kwak (@stucco_cloud) is from California. He serves as a volunteer reader for Ploughshares, and his poems appear in Puerto del Sol, Beaver Magazine, and Sprung Formal. He was named a commended Foyle Young Poet in 2024.

#poetry #ekphrasticpoem #poetsandpoetry
When we revived Shō in 2023, we sent out some very When we revived Shō in 2023, we sent out some very fast same-day acceptances (including a two-and-a-half hour response to @theoceanisgay). These days our average acceptance response time is longer: 20+ days or so for recent acceptances. As a team of three, we’re able to make relatively quick decisions, but we also like to sit with work before discussing it.

#shoacceptancefolder #litmag #poetry
Sometimes we work with artists on cover art tailor Sometimes we work with artists on cover art tailored to the issue (Hello, @harimmch!) For Shō No. 9, we gave our cover artist Nara Allsop a selection of poems we’d accepted. He chose to interpret Hananah Zaheer’s poem “War.” Swipe right to read the poem and learn more!

+ Sneak peek from our forthcoming issue: Hananah Zaheer’s poem “War” (shared here without audio bc pink camera rules)

+ “About this Poem” and bio for the poet Hananah Zaheer

+ Artist Statement: “Past Looking” by Nara Allsop

+ About the Cover Artist

#litmag #literaryjournal #poetsandpoetry
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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

375

Poems Published

269

Total Poets Published

170

Audio Features Published

61

Prize Nominations

6

Poems chosen for inclusion in anthologies

Shō Poetry Journal


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