submissions REOPEN DECEMBER 1

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

Shō Poetry Journal

Shō Family

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Shō No. 5 (Summer 2024)View issue Nyree AbrahamianAmy AshCorey BaronAileen BassisDaniel BrennanCatherine BroadwallCortney Lamar CharlestonAmanda ChiadoGrant ClauserDorsey CraftP. Scott CunninghamAllison Field BellMckendy Fils-AiméNora GuptaElontra N. HallJose Hernandez Diaz Chiagoziem JideoforSophie JohnsonRichard JordanKuhu JoshiSaba KeramatiJasmine KhaliqKarla Myn KhineMonica KimSusan L. LearyCasandra LópezClint MargraveMira Mason-ReaderJohn MoessnerSati MookherjeeDan MurphyJose Oseguera Kate PyontekJessica Nirvana RamAkira RitosSara SantistevanShane SchickHannah SmithNick …

Audio Feature: Lana Matthews Sain (Shō No. 4)

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Lana Matthews Sain reads her poem “We Go to the Cemetery to Buy a Burial Plot” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2024). Lana Matthews Sain is a poet and business analyst in Sewanee, TN, where she works and explores poetry, nature, and spirituality as paths to original Self. She is a mother, an ordained Zen …

Audio Feature: Eben E. B. Bein (Shō No. 4)

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Eben E. B. Bein reads their poem “Namesake” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2024). Eben E. B. Bein (they/he) is a biology-teacher-turned-climate-justice-educator at the nonprofit Our Climate. They were a 2022 Fellow for the Writing By Writers workshop and winner of the 2022 Writers Rising Up “Winter Variations” poetry contest. Their poems can be found in the likes of Nimrod Journal, New Ohio …

Audio Feature: Andrew Payton (Shō No. 3)

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Andrew Payton reads his poem “Not My Country” from Shō No. 3 Andrew Payton is a writer, learning designer, and climate advocate living in Harrisonburg, Virginia with his partner and children. His poetry has been published in Denver Quarterly, New Ohio Review, Verse Daily, Nimrod, and elsewhere, and won the James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review.

Audio Feature: Ally Ang (Shō No. 3)

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Ally Ang reads their poem “After ‘Prolonged Grief Disorder’ Was Added to DSM-5” from Shō No. 3 Ally Ang is a gaysian poet & editor based in Seattle. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Muzzle Magazine, ANMLY, and elsewhere. Ally is a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow. Their debut poetry collection, Let the …

Audio Feature: Richard Vargas (Shō No. 4)

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Richard Vargas reads his poem “morning coffee at Café Crema” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2024). Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. …

Audio Feature: Nazifa Islam (Shō No. 4)

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Nazifa Islam reads her poem, “Day by Day” from Shō No. 4, Winter 2024. Nazifa’s found poem, “Day by Day,” was written using paragraphs from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Read about Nazifa’s process here. Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). …

Audio Feature: Quinton Okoro (Shō No. 4)

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Quinton Okoro reads their poem, “katabases” from Shō No. 4, Winter 2024. Quinton Okoro is a Black, nonbinary poet from Nigeria, with a BA in Creative Writing from UNC-Chapel Hill. They are a 2024 Djanikian Scholar and the winner of a University & College Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, among other awards. …

Audio Feature: Dare Williams (Shō No. 3)

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Dare Williams reads his poem, “My Lover Watches Their Lover Die” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Dare Williams is a Queer HIV-positive poet and literary worker rooted in Southern California. He has received support/fellowships for his work from Brooklyn Poets, Bread Loaf, Tin House, and Vermont Studio Center. He has been awarded a California …

Audio Feature: Cass Garison (Shō No. 3)

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Cass Garison reads their poem, “Meditation on Longing” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Cass Garison is a poet & artist with an MFA from University of Washington, Seattle. Their first chapbook, “Beauty Exasperated,” will be coming out through Common Meter Press in April, 2024. They have work published at Poets.org, in Gulf Coast, Washington Square Review, Foglifter, Shō & …

Audio Feature: Kailee Pedersen (Shō No. 3)

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Kailee Pedersen reads her poem,” Primavera” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Kailee Pedersen‘s poetry has appeared in Strange Horizons, AGNI, They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets (Blue Oak Press), Shō, and others. Her debut novel, Sacrificial Animals, is forthcoming in August 2024 from St. Martin’s Press. She was …

Audio Feature: Bunkong Tuon (Shō No. 3)

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Bunkong Tuon reads his poem, “Letter to My Unborn Son” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Bunkong Tuon is a Cambodian-American writer and poet. He is the author of three poetry collections. His work has appeared in World Literature Today, Copper Nickel, New York Quarterly, Massachusetts Review, Verse Daily, diode poetry, among others. His debut novel, Koan Khmer (Curbstone …

Audio Feature: Sean Thomas Dougherty (Shō No. 3)

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Sean Thomas Dougherty reads his poem, “Hanzi in the Rain” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Sean Thomas Dougherty is the author or editor of twenty books including his latest Death Prefers the Minor Keys from BOA Editions. His numerous awards also include The Paterson Poetry Prize, The James Hearst Poetry Prize from North American Review, an …

Recent & Forthcoming Books from Shō No. 3 Poets

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Congratulations to these Shō No. 3: Revival Issue (Summer/Fall 2023) contributors, whose books were published in 2023 or are forthcoming in 2024 or 2025! Their books are linked below. You can also read the bios of all Shō No. 3 contributors here. Debut Poetry Collections Ally Ang: Let the Moon Wobble, forthcoming (Alice James Books, …

Audio Feature: Cassandra Whitaker (Shō No. 3)

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Cassandra Whitaker reads their poem, “Queerness is Infinite” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023. Cassandra Whitaker (she/they) is trans writer living in rural Virginia. Whit’s work has been published in Michigan Quarterly Review, havehashad, Conjunctions, The Mississippi Review, and other places. They are a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Wolf Devouring A Wolf …

Audio feature: Alfonso Zapata (Shō No. 3)

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Alfonso Zapata reads his poem, “Leaving My Abuelos’ Basement, Christmas Eve 2015” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023 Alfonso Zapata recently received his MFA in poetry at The University of Kentucky, and has attended The University of Toledo and The University of Southern Mississippi, where he obtained his master’s degree in poetry. He has previously …

Audio feature: Ellen June Wright (Shō No. 3)

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Ellen June Wright reads her poem, “I Am What Happens When Nature Has Its Way” from Shō No. 3, Summer/Fall 2023 Ellen June Wright is an American poet with British and Caribbean roots. Her work has been published in Plume, Tar River, Missouri Review, Verse Daily, Gulf Stream, Solstice, Louisiana Literature, Leon Literary Review, North American Review, …

Contributors’ Notes, Shō No. 4

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Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Stone Circle Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Philadelphia Stories, Midway Journal, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship, is a Best of the Net nominee, and is a poetry editor for Variant Literature. …

Editors’ Note, Shō No. 3

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Like the bleary-eyed bear on the cover of this issue, we are waking up from hibernation—a twenty-year hibernation, to be exact. Shō’s revival was set in motion by our return to the United States two years ago. After spending ten-odd years in Southeast Asia, where we met, we moved to North-Central Arizona, which we now …

Notes on Poems, Shō No. 3

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Sage Ravenwood on “Leonard Peltier’s Plea for Clemency,” pp. 10: Leonard Peltier is a Native American man of Lakota and Dakota descent, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe. To many despite tribe affiliations he is a hero; to the FBI he’s a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) convicted of two …

Contributors’ Notes: Shō No. 3

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(SUMMER/FALL 2023) / Purchase Shō No. 3 Ally Ang is a gaysian poet and editor based in Seattle. Their work is published in Columbia Journal, ANMLY, Bellingham Review, The Journal, and elsewhere. Ally is the recipient of fellowships and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. …

News & Updates

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2024 Tuesday July 23: Shō No. 5 is here! Monday July 1: Submissions are now open! See our guidelines for more info. We now read for the Sita Martin Prize and Shō Poetry Prize. Saturday April 13: Shō Poetry Journal will be attending the 2024 Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) in Flagstaff. Look for our …

The End of June

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by Robert L. Penick The old man at the corner bus stop –there without fail each morning at eight – disappeared either two weeks or six months ago.I’m not sure which.Was 1987 the year I dated the girlwith the long auburn hair?Perhaps it was 1986.I was at the university, I know.I remember the mole on her …