Submissions are open for poetry (via Submittable)
Get your work in by September 30!
Shō Poetry Journal is a small-press print journal coming out of a 20-year hibernation. Our mission is to publish a diverse range of voices, including poets who have been historically underrepresented or overlooked. We seek to champion poets at all stages of their careers, with special attention given to the work of emerging poets.
Because we are based in Arizona, where 27% of the state is reservation land, we offer free submissions to Native American poets, including Canadian First Nations poets.
Shō No. 3, our revival issue, was released in summer 2023 and featured poets such as Sean Thomas Dougherty, Bunkong Tuon, Luke Johnson and Megan Merchant, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Ally Ang, and Sage Ravenwood (See the full list of contributors here).
We are now reading for Shō No. 4, which will be released in winter/spring 2024. We welcome submissions of previously unpublished poetry from all poets and especially encourage submissions from historically underrepresented poets.
We nominate select works for The Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets.
Guidelines
• Submit up to five poems at a time. Please do not submit additional work until you’ve heard back from us regarding a previous submission.
• While we consider prose poems and poems with longer line lengths, our current print journal size dictates a preference for poems with a maximum line length of approximately 60 characters (including spaces).
• Your cover letter should include the titles you are submitting and a short third-person bio (60 words or less). If your poem is ‘after’ another poet, please name the poem it’s after, or provide any relevant details in your cover letter.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you specify this in your cover letter and send us a message through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• We do not accept AI generated work.
Formatting
• Poems should be single-spaced and formatted in a standard 12-point font. Begin each poem on a new page.
• Please include page numbers and your name on every page.
• If a poem is longer than one page, please indicate if the second or successive page begins with a new stanza.
• Name your file (.doc/.docx) as follows: FirstName_LastName
Response time
Our average response time is 2 weeks. We attempt to respond to all submissions within one month or less.
Payment
Shō is a print journal. Payment is one contributor’s copy. US-based authors also receive a discount on the purchase of extra copies.
Copyright
Shō Poetry Journal requests first serial rights, except for work that has been previously published, as well as the right to republish accepted works on our website and/or to use excerpts in our social media feeds and submit work to venues such as Verse Daily. Rights revert to the author upon publication; however, please credit Shō Poetry Journal with first publication if the work is republished elsewhere.
Submit by mail
We accept paper submissions from incarcerated writers during our regular reading periods. Please do not submit by mail if you are not an incarcerated writer.
Follow the guidelines outlined above. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please inform us using our contact form.
Shō Poetry Journal
P.O. Box 4410
Chino Valley, AZ 86323
Note: You must enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for a reply. Manuscripts will be returned only if specified and if sufficient postage is included. Submissions that do not contain an SASE will not be considered.