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Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

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    • Shō Number Six
    • Shō Number Five
    • Shō Number Four
    • Shō Number Three
    • Pride Month Playlist #1 (2024)
    • Black History Month Playlist (2025)
    • Women’s History Month RoundUp 2025
    • Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Roundup 2025
    • Pride Month Playlist #2 (2025)
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    • A Conversation with Arah Ko
    • A Conversation with Nathan Xavier Osorio
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Shō Number Six

Audio Feature: Allisa Cherry (Shō No. 6)

Jun 16, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to Allisa Cherry read her poem “Second Anointing” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).

Black and white: A mixed-race white-Japanese man in contemplation by a sunny window. He wears a collared print shirt and a pair of glasses perched on his nose.

Robert Okaji, Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize (Shō No. 6, Winter 2024/25)

Jun 1, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Morning was a jaundiced memory,
a burnished smear on the kettle
shrilling its warning.

Pride Month Playlist 2025

May 30, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Twelve tracks to celebrate Pride Month by contributors to Shō Poetry Journal.

A grid of photographs of 12 poets. In the top left corner is a large red square with text "Shō Poetry Journal ・ Asian/Pacific Heritage Month Playlist"

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month Roundup 2025

May 1, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

To celebrate Asian/Pacific heritage month, we’ve curated this selection of poems that give voice to Asian American experiences centered around inheritance, history, memory, and belonging.

This roundup features poems and audio recordings by Ally Ang, Monica Kim, Arah Ko, Vannida S. Kol, Sati Mookherjee, Jessica Nirvana Ram, Eylie Sasajima, Jeddie Sophronius, Sophia Terazawa, Elise Thi Tran, Bunkong Tuon, and MT Vallarta. These poems first appeared in Shō No. 3, Shō No. 4, Shō No. 5, and Shō No. 6.

Close-up of Becka Mara McKay, a Caucasian woman with curly reddish-brown hair, looking off to the side. There is a turquoise blue couch cushion behind her.

Audio Feature: Becka Mara McKay (Shō No. 6)

Apr 29, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to Becka Mara McKay read “Golden Shovel as Anthropomorphism (Song of Songs 2:10)” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).

Women’s History Month Roundup 2025

Mar 12, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

In honor of Women's History Month, read this selection of poems by Sage Ravenwood, Gabriela Bittencourt dos Santos, Kuhu Joshi, Tianna Bratcher, Ari B. Cofer, and Dorsey Craft. These poems were published in Shō No. 4, Shō No. 5, and Shō No. 6.

Ranudi Gunawardena, Sita Martin Prize Runner-Up (Shō No. 6, Winter 2024/25)

Feb 5, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

The fruit / hung bending the branches, like a hundred // small stomachs, bird-eaten and naked / where the beaks had pierced.

Black History Month Playlist

Jan 31, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to poems by Jae Nichelle, Saida Agostini, Ellen June Wright, Corey Baron, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Erica Dawson, and Elontra Hall. These poems appeared in Shō No. 5 and Shō No. 6.

A Caucasian woman with a slight smile on her face stands in sunlight on the balcony of a tall apartment building. She has shoulder-length light blonde hair and wears a black v-neck top with short ruffled sleeves.

Audio Feature: Maja Lukic (Shō No. 6)

Jan 15, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to Maja Lukic, inaugural winner of the Sita Martin Prize, read “Your Mother Knew Many Words for Beauty and Used All of Them to Call You” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25). Audio recorded by Reed Turchi at Second Take Sound. Maja Lukic is a Brooklyn-based poet. She received an MFA in poetry from …

A young South Asian woman is sitting indoors and is turned to face the camera, smiling. She wears large black-framed glasses and a set of black headphones.

Audio Feature: Ranudi Gunawardena (Shō No. 6)

Jan 14, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to Ranudi Gunawardena read “Girl Cousins, Pixelated” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25). For this poem, Ranudi was honored as the runner-up of the Sita Martin Prize for Shō No. 6. Ranudi Gunawardena is a Sri Lankan poet whose work explores the wombscape, childhood in rural landscapes, and the uncanny in nature, among others. …

A headshot of the author Jae Nichelle, a Black woman with locs, sitting down and smiling at the camera.

Audio Feature: Jae Nichelle (Shō No. 6)

Jan 11, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Listen to Jae Nichelle read “alternate timeline” from Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25). “I began this poem thinking about the cyclical nature of time, specifically relating to my matrilineage and my family’s fraught relationship with the bodies of water around us as Louisianians. We face the persistent threats of floods and hurricanes while relying on unsafe …

In this staged photo, Alejandro is seated in front of a tall window with white curtains. He is looking directly into the camera, and has brown eyes, dark eyebrows and beard, and shoulder- length brown hair. He is wearing a grey sweater over a white button-down shirt.

Audio Feature: Alejandro Lucero (Shō No. 6)

Jan 8, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

You should talk about the field of dying alfalfa, / the golden straws that scratch your grandmother’s / legs when she returns from the river, and the fleas / jumping to her swollen ankles.

he poet, a Filipino woman with long dark hair, looks at the camera with a slight smile. She is wearing a black dress and a small pendant on a gold chain.

Audio Feature: T. De Los Reyes (Shō No. 6)

Jan 7, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

Dear Ryuichi, I live in a universe where / the sound of rain is your fingers tinkering / with the keys.

a fat black woman with a curly dark Afro smiles. She is wearing a black dress, and has a large flower tattoo on her upper left chest

Audio Feature: Saida Agostini (Shō No. 6)

Jan 6, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

you beautiful beautiful stupid haunted girl / you lawless thief of daddy’s face and mummy’s grief / you daughter of the pomeroon

A white man with short brown hair, a beard and mustache, and glasses leans over a puzzle. He is wearing a short-sleeved dark cerulean button up and is holding a small coffee cup in his left hand. His right forearm is encircled by a tattoo of two slim black bands and his left wrist has a watch.

Audio Feature: Jackson D. Moorman (Shō No. 6)

Jan 5, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

prepared to be bare chested for the first / time in public. Fear I’ll be breaking / some cardinal rules.

An African-American woman smiles while standing in front of a brick wall.

Audio Feature: Erica Dawson (Shō No. 6)

Jan 3, 2025 · Shō Poetry Journal

My excised uterus cramps with a phantom / womb’s labor pain, hard as that is to fathom.

Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

260

Poems Published

170

Total Poets Published

73

Audio Features Published

28

Poems Nominated for Prizes

1

Poem chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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