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submissions reopen june 1

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

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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 Poetry Journal is a small-press print journal coming out of a 20-year hibernation. We publish a diverse range of contemporary poetry and seek to champion poets at all stages of their careers. Follow us on Twitter or Instagram for updates.

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CURRENT ISSUE

Shō No. 6

WINTER 2024/2025

This issue features 57 poems by 40 poets.
Cover art: “In Gilded Walls” by Tanya Rastogi.

Purchase now

Online Features

  • Jan 30, 2025

    Audio Feature: Ellen June Wright (Shō No. 5)

  • Jan 28, 2025

    Audio Feature: Claire Zhou (Shō No. 5)

  • Jan 19, 2025

    Audio Feature: Elontra Hall (Shō No. 5)

  • Jan 15, 2025

    Audio Feature: Maja Lukic (Shō No. 6)

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Past Issues

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

Listen to Bunkong Tuon read "My Ancestors Didn't S Listen to Bunkong Tuon read "My Ancestors Didn't Scream" from Shō Poetry Journal No. 6.

Bunkong Tuon is a Cambodian American writer, Pushcart Prize–winning poet, and professor who teaches at Union College in Schenectady, in NY. In 2024, he published What Is Left, a Greatest Hits chapbook from Jacar Press, and Koan Khmer, his debut novel from Northwestern UP/Curbstone Books. He lives with his wife and children in Upstate New York. Visit his website at bunkongtuon.com.

#aapiheritagemonth #poetry #audiofeature #bunkongtuon #apaheritagemonth #aapipoetry #poetrycommunity
It has begun! Shō No. 7 is being pieced together. It has begun! Shō No. 7 is being pieced together.

#printmag #poetry #poetrycommunity #printmagazines #litjournal
Listen to MT Vallarta read “Neighborhood Tour” Listen to MT Vallarta read “Neighborhood Tour” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24).

MT Vallarta (@__melkteaa) (they/them) is a poet and Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. They are the author of the poetry collection, What You Refuse to Remember, winner of the 2022 Small Harbor Publishing Laureate Prize. A Kundíman fellow, Roots. Wounds. Words. fellow, and Pushcart Prize nominee, their poetry and creative nonfiction can be found in The Selkie, Shō, Madwomen in the Attic, Nat. Brut, Apogee, and others. They live on Northern Chumash lands, in Grover Beach, CA.
Listen to Vannida S. Kol read “Departure from Mo Listen to Vannida S. Kol read “Departure from Mondulkiri” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24).

About this poem: “My father was born in 1973, two years before the Cambodian genocide began; he does not remember the faces of his mother and siblings. From their lineage, we are descendants of the Bunong tribe, mountain people of red earth.”

Vannida S. Kol (@plumeria.leaf) is a Khmer-American poet and the eldest daughter of refugees, reimagining culture, religion, and family history in her writing. She is an MFA candidate at Randolph College. Her work has appeared in The Margins, The Rising Phoenix Review, QUIET!, and elsewhere. She divides her time between Texas and Cambodia, her two motherlands.

#aapipoetrymonth #aapipoetry #audiofeature #poetrycommunity
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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

260

Poems Published

170

Total Poets Published

62

Audio Features Published

28

Poems Nominated for Prizes

1

Poem chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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