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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

  • Jul 23, 2025

    Audio Feature: Shawnte Orion

  • Jul 7, 2025

    Audio Feature: Erica Abbott

  • Jun 29, 2025

    Amber Adams – Okinawa, 2016

  • Jun 29, 2025

    Paige Passantino — Sugar Baby Sonnet

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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

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.
We're offering 30 free submissions on December 24! We're offering 30 free submissions on December 24!

Opens at noon MST, closes at 11:59pm MST (or once our cap is reached).

If you have a submission pending, please wait until you receive a response.

Full guidelines: https://shopoetryjournal.com/submissions

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀
1. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁
* Submit up to 5 unpublished poems in a single PDF or Word doc/docx

* Include your name and page numbers on every page

* Name your file ‘FirstName_LastName’ e.g. John_Tan.pdf

2. 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 (𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲)
* Include your poem titles

* Include a short third-person author bio

* Simultaneous submission? Let us know

𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝘀 & 𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘀
* We do not accept work that has been generated by or aided by AI

* Please do not submit poems that have been posted online/published in any form

* To withdraw individual poems, use the ‘Messages’ feature in Submittable (do not notify us via email or our contact form)
Listen to “Harami Ghazal” by Rukan Saif, selected Listen to “Harami Ghazal” by Rukan Saif, selected as the runner-up for the Sita Martin Prize. “Harami Ghazal” appears in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/2026).

About this poem: Some of the most fun advice I received on form was to break into it. I find it really satisfying when a ghazal turns into/against itself and breaks its own rules while clearly still being a ghazal. When I was writing this poem, I was thinking a lot about faith, fracture, and return. I felt that the ghazal form allowed me to honor return with its repetition and circularity, while the refrain of "pray/prey" allowed me to study the connection between faith and fracture.

Rukan Saif is a poet and essayist from Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Hayden's Ferry Review, Faultline, The Penn Review, ONE ART, and elsewhere. A Best of the Net nominee, she reads for ONLY POEMS and has received generous support from Brooklyn Poets and The Seventh Wave. She now splits her time between Baltimore and Boston.

#ghazallovers #audiopoetry
We’re open and reading for our summer issue! #poe We’re open and reading for our summer issue!

#poetrysubmissions #shoreviewfolder
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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

327

Poems Published

224

Total Poets Published

102

Audio Features Published

42

Poems Nominated for Prizes

2

Poems chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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