Rebecca Hart Olander — An Old Story [Shō Poetry Prize Winner]
Read Rebecca Hart Olander's poem “An Old Story,” winner of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 9 (Summer 2026).
Elina Katrin — Beach Day with Tsvetaeva [Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up]
Read Elina Katrin's poem "Beach Day with Tsvetaeva," Runner-Up of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 9 (Summer 2026)
Betsy Mitchell Martinez – Self-Portrait as Frida Kahlo with Prickly Pear [Shō Poetry Prize Winner]
Read “Self-Portrait as Frida Kahlo with Prickly Pear” by Betsy Mitchell Martinez, one of three poems chosen for the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/2026).
Rebecca Morton – Uncertainty Principle [Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up]
Read “Uncertainty Principle” by Rebecca Morton, runner-up of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26).
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.
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
Robert Okaji – The Starlings Were You [Shō Poetry Prize Winner]
“The Starlings Were You” by Robert Okaji, Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize for Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25).
Morning was a jaundiced memory,
a burnished smear on the kettle
shrilling its warning.
