Elizabeth Loudon: Renunciation
Read and listen to Elizabeth Loudon read her poem “Renunciation,” published in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26). “Renunciation” was selected by guest editor Cecily Parks for inclusion in Best New Poets 2025.
Native American Heritage Month 2025
To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, we've curated this selection of poems by Indigenous U.S. poets Danielle Shandiin Emerson (Diné), Chris Hoshnic (Diné), Malia Maxwell (Kanaka Maoli), Tim Moder (Chippewa), Sofia Rasic (Cherokee), and J.K. Tsosie (Diné). Their work was recently published in Shō No. 7 and Shō No. 6.
Audio Feature: Saddiq Dzukogi
Listen to Saddiq Dzukogi read “Bakandamiya IX.” published in Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25). We nominated this poem for Best Spiritual Literature. This is an excerpt from “Bakandamiya: An Elegy,” a book-length epic poem set in northern Nigeria. “Bakandamiya” will be released on December 1 and is available for preorder from The African Book Fund via University of Nebraska Press.
A Conversation with Arah Ko
INTERVIEW A Conversation with Arah Ko Shō Poetry Journal intern Claire Zhou interviews contributor Arah Ko, whose poems “Magpie 까치” and “Fiddleback” appear in Shō No. 4. Arah is the author of Brine Orchid (YesYes Books 2025) and the chapbook Animal Logic (Bull City Press 2026). Claire Zhou Hi Arah! I’ve read both of your …
Audio Feature: Michael Garrigan
Listen to Michael Garrigan read “In Last Light We Drive to the River,” published in Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24). We nominated this poem for Best Spiritual Literature. About this poem: I wrote this poem in my head as I drove back late at night after fishing an incredible sulphur hatch on the Little Juniata River …
Audio Feature: Kate Pyontek
Listen to Kate Pyontek read “Nocturne with Construction Detour” from Shō No. 5 (Summer 2024). About this poem: I wrote the first draft of this poem in an online class I took with Aimee Nezhukumatathil on writing aubades and nocturnes. The poem considers a period where I wasn’t sure whether I still had feelings for …
Audio Feature: Aleks Zywicki
Listen to Aleks Zywicki read “rewatching the film” from Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025). About this poem: “rewatching the film” is an ekphrasis poem inspired by the 2013 film, Under the Skin. I don’t really like violent movies and I’m not even sure that I can say I enjoyed seeing this one. But right in …
Filipino American History Month Round Up
To celebrate National Filipino American Heritage Month, we've curated this selection of poems by by Hannah Keziah Agustin (Shō No. 7); Karla Myn Khine and Akira Ritos (Shō No. 5), and Elise Thi Tran and MT Vallarta (Shō No. 4).
Nicholas Pierce Interviews Bobby Elliott
What's Possible When Poetry Is Direct: An Interview with Bobby Elliott, author of “The Same Man,” winner of the 2025 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, selected by Nate Marshall.
Audio Feature: Bobby Elliott
Listen to Bobby Elliott read “The Fall of 1990” from Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025).
Hispanic Heritage Month Playlist 2025
To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we've curated this selection of poems by US-based Shō Poetry Journal contributors. This playlist features audio recordings by Jenna Martínez, Asheley Nova Navarro, Nina C. Peláez (Shō No. 7); Alejandro Lucero (Shō No. 6); Jasmine Khaliq, José Oseguera, Sara Santistevan (Shō No. 5); Faith Gómez Clark, Nathan Xavier Osorio, Laura Villareal (Shō No. 4); and Alfonso Zapata (Shō No. 3).
Samodh Porawagamage — Two postcard poems from To Punani Camp
“My book manuscript To Punani Camp, set during the Sri Lankan Civil War, comprises sent, unsent, and crossed-out postcards a soldier's wife would write to her husband.”
Nicholas Pierce — Two Sonnets from Pierce Junction
Two Sonnets from Pierce Junction: No one knew what to make of the pear tree, / why only one side sprouted fruit, as if / the branches were opposed to symmetry / or cursed.
Audio Feature: Richard Collins
Listen to Richard Collins read “Wind Flows Over Stone Nest Dojo” from Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24).
Audio Feature: Shawnte Orion
Listen to Shawnte Orion read “Poem Yet To Be Written By Erik Bitsui (who wrote the book Mosh Pit Etiquette Volume One: Secrets of a 21st Century Navajo Headbanger)” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).
Audio Feature: Erica Abbott
Listen to Erica Abbott read her poem "Portrait of a Wildfire Photographer in a Near-Apocalyptic World," published in Shō No. 4 (Winter 2023/24).
Amber Adams – Okinawa, 2016
"Okinawa, 2016" by Amber Adams:
In the years before you died, you lived
on the island where the kijimuna eat the eyes
of fish, and seeing the sea is inescapable.
By the time I made the many flight trek,
you’d become boyish again in linen shirts
and water shoes. Surf-polished, less
Paige Passantino — Sugar Baby Sonnet
“Sugar Baby Sonnet” by Paige Passantino:
The website for meeting daddys was free to use
with a student email address. On the sugar side, of course.
The others paid. Both sides were merely seeking, arranging
something with range: six images for pleasure, a curation
dependent on if today’s girl would be show, or telling
Christian J. Collier — Nocturne [Shō Poetry Prize Winner]
Read “Nocturne” by Christian J. Collier, Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025).
I believed I could be more than man &, for two hours, became
the darkest bird in Hamilton County—barely eighteen,
midnight blue, resting my warm, bare feet on sheets of gale
as fog-sopped night made kindred of me.
Ernest Ohia – somehow [Sita Martin Prize Winner]
“somehow” by Ohia, Ernest Chigaemezu, Winner of the Sita Martin Prize for Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025):
it begins with dreams where your heart flutters nonstop in an airplane bound for america used to be a part of your dreams now are like cicadas throwing a wild party & you're clueless as fuck your papery heart
Nina C. Peláez – Doubt [Sita Martin Prize Runner-Up]
“Doubt” by Nina C. Peláez, Runner-Up of the Sita Martin Prize for Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025).
At the cattle farm, I fell in love with a boy
who thought he was a god. I too, believed
this sometimes.
Aldo Amparán — Symptoms of Ghosts [Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up]
Runner-Up of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025).
“The main reason behind the gay orientation of some
men is that they are possessed by female ghosts.”
— Spiritual Science Research Foundation
Audio Feature: Rosemarie Dombrowski
Listen to Rosemarie Dombrowski read “Epistolary for the New Year” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).