• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer

FLASH SALE! 33% off all recent ISSUES

POETRY submissions REopen DECEMBER 15

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

  • Read a Poem
  • Listen
    • Shō Number Seven
    • Shō Number Six
    • Shō Number Five
    • Shō Number Four
    • Shō Number Three
    • Themed Playlists
      • Pride Month Playlist #1 (2024)
      • Black History Month Playlist (2025)
      • Women’s History Month Round Up (2025)
      • Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Roundup (2025)
      • Pride Month Playlist #2 (2025)
      • Hispanic Heritage Month Playlist (2025)
      • Filipino American History Month (2025)
      • Native American Heritage Month (2025)
  • Interviews
    • Nicholas Pierce Interviews Bobby Elliott
    • A Conversation with Arah Ko
    • A Conversation with Nathan Xavier Osorio
  • Buy
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Story
    • Masthead
    • Accolades
    • Nominations
    • Contact
  • Shō Family
    • Contributors
    • Contributors (by issue)
    • Cover Art
    • Books from Shō No. 3 Poets
  • Submit
    • Submissions
    • The Sita Martin Prize
    • The Shō Poetry Prize
    • Prize Winners
  • Donate
  • Cart

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.

Learn More
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.

Order now

Online Features

  • Nov 1, 2025

    Native American Heritage Month 2025

  • Oct 30, 2025

    Shō Poetry Journal Family

  • Oct 30, 2025

    Audio Feature: Saddiq Dzukogi

  • Oct 30, 2025

    A Conversation with Arah Ko

Next Page

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.

Purchase Now

Shō No. 5

Summer 2024

Shō No. 5 features 68 poems by 47 poets.

Cover art: “Lucy” by Harim Choi.

Purchase Now

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.

Purchase Now

Shō No. 3

Summer/Fall 2023

Shō No. 3 features 62 poems by 42 poets.

Cover art: “Grandfather Autumn” by Juanita Violini.

Purchase Now

Shō Poetry Journal on Instagram

shopoetryjournal

M. Cynthia Cheung’s debut collection “Common Disas M. Cynthia Cheung’s debut collection “Common Disaster” was released on November 15 and is available for purchase @acrebooks (tinyurl.com/commondisaster). Listen to a poem from the collection, “Ensenada,” which was published in Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025).

About the poem: I wrote "Ensenada" after an occurrence that happened almost exactly as depicted in the poem. It’s the last poem I wrote for my debut collection and probably one of my favorites.

About “Common Disaster”: As a front-line physician, M. Cynthia Cheung started writing poetry during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her remarkable debut collection, “Common Disaster,” chronicles these experiences. Confronting not just the coronavirus but also war crimes and the death of loved ones, Cheung shows us that the pandemic is only one of many disasters we hold in common. In poems that look to both the past and future, she takes a stand against the extinction of self and memory, challenging the violence of erasure.

The period covered by the book is geologic and vast. It examines present-day evidence of ancient human activity and natural history, including the Lascaux caves, asteroid craters, tar pits, and Viking ruins. The poems include ghazals, thoughtful free verse, and work that takes up the page in reframing classical Chinese oracular texts to situate the pain of a doctor in crisis.

As a physician-poet, Cheung asks us to see beyond the everyday to the devastating truths about the human condition.

M. Cynthia Cheung (@zoologicalgirl) is an American poet whose work has appeared in AGNI, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, swamp pink, and elsewhere, and she is the recipient of the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She practices internal medicine in Texas.
We published 124 poems in our last two issues. We We published 124 poems in our last two issues. We can only nominate six poems for the Pushcart Prize! The Shō team will be meeting tomorrow to vote—Shō No. 6 and 7 contributors, don’t feel alarmed if you keep sneezing…

Also, issues are on sale till the end of the month! Get them at our website; no promo code needed.

#poetrycommunity
@chillsubs_official is running their annual Best L @chillsubs_official is running their annual Best Lit Mag Awards. Voting is open to all! If what we’re doing at Shō Poetry Journal resonates with you, please consider voting for us! 🥹 You can vote for up to five lit mags.
We heard Chris Hoshnic read “Event / Response” at We heard Chris Hoshnic read “Event / Response” at @noazbookfest earlier this year and are happy to share this studio version—give it a listen! “Event / Response” was published in Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).

Chris Hoshnic is a Navajo Poet, Playwright, and Filmmaker from Sweetwater, Arizona. A recipient of the Poetry Northwest 2025 James Welch Prize, Hoshnic’s work has received support from Indigenous Nations Poets, Playwrights Realm, Tin House, Juniper Institute, and more. His work has been published in POETRY, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. He is the Editor-in-Chief of @chapterhousejournal, an online indigenous-centered literary magazine. Hoshnic currently directs @dinekidsfilmclub, an Indigenous youth project dedicated to giving resources and networking opportunities for young Native filmmakers. He is also currently an MFA candidate at the @instituteofamericanindianarts.
Follow Shō on Instagram

Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

327

Poems Published

224

Total Poets Published

95

Audio Features Published

42

Poems Nominated for Prizes

2

Poems chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


is a proud member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

Our Story
Masthead
Accolades
Donate
Contact
Submit
FAQ
Newsletter

  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Bluesky

Copyright © 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal · All Rights Reserved

Privacy policy

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.