Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Shō Poetry Journal

@shopoetryjournal.bsky.social

2.8K followers 480 following 180 posts

Arizona-based nonprofit print journal coming out of a 20-year hibernation. We publish an eclectic stew of poetry and award prizes for each issue. Ed. @domkeykong.bsky.social + @johnnycordova.bsky.social. Submissions re-open Dec. 1. shopoetryjournal.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Jul 1

It’s been two years since we released our revival issue, and we’re excited to share our summer issue, which features 67 poems by 48 poets!

Now shipping: shopoetryjournal.com/product/sho-...

2 9 27

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · 10h

❤️
@elise-tran.bsky.social
@itsmelktea.bsky.social
@bunrealism.bsky.social

Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP) @clmporg.bsky.social · 1d

@shopoetryjournal.bsky.social’s #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth playlist features six poems by poets recently published in the journal, including Hannah Keziah Agustin, Karla Myn Khine, Akira Ritos, Elise Thi Tran, and MT Vallarta!

Listen to it here:
shopoetryjournal.com/filipino-ame...

Filipino American History Month Round Up - Shō Poetry Journal

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…

shopoetryjournal.com

1 3

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

ALOCASIA @alocasiamag.bsky.social · Aug 15

Our ALOCASIA has unfurled a new leaf! And we're so proud!

It's our first all-Indigenous issue! This is a showcase of the work of 20 writers from around the world, curated by our guest editors Yasmine Bolden, tripp j Crouse, and Sarah Clark. We hope you are as delighted by it as we are

ALOCASIA.org

Alocasia leaf background. Text reads "Plantcestors: The Indigenous Issue"

1 63 91

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Jared Beloff @readinstead.bsky.social · 2d

Have you signed up yet? It's this Tuesday!

NAWP @notatawp.bsky.social · 25d

Announcement time! October 14th, 7:00 Eastern: Hear poems from @clbpoetry.bsky.social, @mitchnobis.bsky.social, and @djvorreyer.bsky.social! Hosted by the amazing @readinstead.bsky.social!

Hit the eventbrite link to register. NAWP!

www.eventbrite.com/e/a-nawp-rea...

Promo graphic with author photos of Donna Vorreyer, Chris Butler, and Mitchell Nobis. And the NAWP ostrich, of course.
The text says:
A NAWP Reading
Chris L. Butler
Mitch Nobis
Donna Vorreyer
Hosted by
Jared Beloff
October 14, 2025
7:00-8:00PM EST

9 9

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Alison Birch @irishali13.bsky.social · 10d

This poem is stunning. If you haven't read Dressing The Bear, it's a must-read.
Clean
~ Susan L. Leary
-I often worried when I got the call, I'd be unprepared. But the morning my brother dies ——💙

Clean
By: Susan L. Leary
I often worried when I got the call, I'd be unprepared.
But the morning my brother dies, all the good clothes in the house are clean. So I tell myself to get on with it. x later, standing over my brother,
I think whoever
prepared his body must love what they do. Because he looks so clean. Cleaner, even, than when he'd doze on the couch midafternoons to Hank Williams or Johnny Cash.
The fatigue of living wiped from his cheeks. & today, as then, the same stillness stretched across his eyes.
The same tiny shovels for thumbs. & when I find the strength to rest a hand atop his, I shake him a little to tell him I wore his favorite dress: summery & sand-colored with splotches of blue. & while it seems so symbolic, it's all rather simple.
I wear a blue-patterned dress because my brother loved the ocean. & because my brother was lonely & broken, he couldn't kick drugs. But I love my brother & the morning he dies, all the good clothes in the house are clean.
So I tell him: Clean.

3 20 52

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Donna Vorreyer @djvorreyer.bsky.social · 10d

I have long admired @janezwart.bsky.social's poetry, and I am thrilled to be paired with her for the Verse Virtual reading next Saturday. Thanks to Robbi Nester for inviting and pairing us!

Details here:
www.facebook.com/events/14239...

Verse Virtual, Oct. 11, 2025, Verse Virtual Poetry, featuring Donna Vorreyer and Jane Zwart

Event by Robbi Nester on Saturday, October 11 2025

www.facebook.com

1 7 27

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Lambda Literary @lambdaliterary.org · 10d

🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations to the 2025 Lambda Literary Award Winner for Gay Poetry: How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters by Saúl Hernández! 🎉🎉🎉 @elsaulhernandez.bsky.social @uwiscpress.bsky.social
#Lammys2025 #LammyAwards

7 24

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Lambda Literary @lambdaliterary.org · 10d

🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations to the 2025 Lambda Literary Award Winner for Bisexual Poetry: Interrogation Records by Jeddie Sophronius! 🎉🎉🎉
#Lammys2025 #LammyAwards

5 18

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you for the plug, @clmporg.bsky.social ❤️

Community of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP) @clmporg.bsky.social · 12d

Be sure to listen to @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social’s #NationalHispanicHeritageMonth playlist!

It features eleven poets recently published in the journal, including Jenna Martínez, Nina C. Peláez, Alejandro Lucero, Nathan Xavier Osorio, and more: shopoetryjournal.com/hispanic-her...

Hispanic Heritage Month Playlist 2025 - Shō Poetry Journal

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…

shopoetryjournal.com

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Donna Vorreyer @djvorreyer.bsky.social · 14d

One week until the official release of Unrivered means one more week of the low sale price! If you are so inclined, pre-ordering also gets you a custom broadside.

Thanks to those of you who have supported the book in this early phase...it means a lot.
tinyurl.com/4pj96v59

7 14

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Split Lip Magazine @splitlipthemag.bsky.social · 14d

Did you know we accept simultaneous submissions? Yes, we do! But ✨ please✨ withdraw your piece immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere. It makes our process easier!

2 18

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Han VanderHart @hanvanderhart.bsky.social · 14d

Send me your students’ poems! 🌸💫📖

Nomination details at link below.

awpwriter.bsky.social @awpwriter.bsky.social · 14d

The 2026 AWP Intro Journals Project judge in poetry is @hanvanderhart.bsky.social, author of LARKS and others. Read their bio, along with the bios of the other judges, on our website. AWP member program directors can submit nominations October 1–November 30, 2025.

AWP Intro Journals Project Judges

awpwriter.org

13 30

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Melissa Fite Johnson @mfitejohnson.bsky.social · 21d

I'm the poetry editor of this terrific journal by and for teachers, and I'd love to read your poems.

Porcupine Literary @porcupinelit.bsky.social · 21d

Teachers! We need your words (now more than ever)! Send us your poems, CNF, and stories. We want your protests, your triumphs, your adoration, and your care.

porcupineliterary.submittable.com/submit

Porcupine Literary Submission Manager

We publish fiction, nonfiction, and poetry about the hard, the beautiful, the exhausting, the outrageous, the moving, the maddening, the ugly, the loving, the grieving, the anything-but-perfect teach...

porcupineliterary.submittable.com

4 4

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Donna Vorreyer @djvorreyer.bsky.social · 21d

I loved talking poems with @hanvanderhart.bsky.social. Grateful for the opportunity.

Of Poetry Podcast @ofpoetrypodcast.bsky.social · 21d

Sneak peek of…Episode 78! Coming to you tomorrow! @djvorreyer.bsky.social @sundresspub.bsky.social

"There's always a little thing that can shimmer-even in a poem that's full of doubt or self-criticism, or whatever other feeling is there and I reach for those moments not only in writing, but in the day-to-day."

DONNA VORREYER, EP 78

5 18

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Wild & Precious Life Series @wplseries.bsky.social · 21d

Tomorrow (9/24)!!

@taylorbyas.bsky.social, Ashley Jones, & @djvorreyer.bsky.social read for the WPLS.

#poetrysky #poetrynews #poets #poetry

@sundresspub.bsky.social @hubcitypress.bsky.social

6 9

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Elizabeth Loudon @esloudon.bsky.social · 23d

The company I keep: www.bestnewpoets.org/finalists.php

Finalists

www.bestnewpoets.org

1 1

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Elizabeth Loudon @esloudon.bsky.social · 23d

Guess whose work will be in Best New Poets 2025? Which goes to show, you can endure months of battling with hospital park and pay machines and poetry still wins, for all of us.

3 6 26

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · 22d

🤍

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Grant Clauser @grantclauser.bsky.social · 22d

Hey, here's the first interview about my new #poetry book, and some other things.

JMWW Journal @jmwwjournal.bsky.social · 22d

"I tell my students that the poet’s mind is never happy with just one thing—it has to be ready to see 18 things in every one thing."
The Ebb and Flow: An Interview with Grant Clausner by Curtis Smith
jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/22/t...

The Ebb and Flow: An Interview with Grant Clausner by Curtis Smith

I tell my students that the poet’s mind is never happy with just one thing—it has to be ready to see 18 things in every one thing.

jmwwblog.wordpress.com

1 1 5

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Sep 11

We are seeking cover art for our winter issue!

Send us up to 8 pieces to consider. It’s free to submit. Payment is one contributor copy and a small honorarium.

Full details: tinyurl.com/shocoverart

Five colorful issues of Shō Poetry Journal laid next to each other on a light grey mottled background. Black text on a pale cream background reads: "Open for Cover Art / Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26) / Free to submit / Closes October 12 / shopoetryjournal.submittable.com / Shō Poetry Journal / An Arizona-based print journal"

5 5

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

SWWIM @swwim.bsky.social · Sep 5

Tap the link below to read the full poem in SWWIM Every Day.

www.swwim.org/swwimeveryday/2025/9/5/la-douleur-exquise

www.swwim.org

1 1

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

SWWIM @swwim.bsky.social · Sep 5

From “La Douleur Exquise” by Megan Merchant @meganmerchant.bsky.social

.
.
.
#SWWIMEveryDay #SWWIMWithUs #Poetry #Poem #WomenWriters #WomenPoets #WomenPublishingWomen #Ciswomen #TransWomen #Nonbinary #Intersex #GenderExpansive #Inclusive #Community #LaDouleurExquise #MeganMerchant #FridayPoem

Image of origami birds with the words "some more careful version of me folded", Megan Merchant

1 1 3

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Jane Zwart (she/her) @janezwart.bsky.social · Sep 1

Thank you, @gunpowderpress.bsky.social's Anacapa Review & guest editor @gyatchisin.bsky.social, for making a spot for slightly embarrassing but joyful poem.
Thank you, Sarah Byker James, for making me more adventuresome, which is not quite to say brave. xo

A more accessible version is online here: https://anacapareview.com/jane-zwart/

4 13

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Sep 1

LAST CALL!!!

Subs close at the top of the hour.

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Aug 31

Last call for submissions for Shō No. 8! We're still seeking work for our winter issue. Submissions close on August 31 at 11.59pm PT. We respond to submissions in 30 days or less.

1 2

Reposted by Shō Poetry Journal

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Aug 31

Last call for submissions for Shō No. 8! We're still seeking work for our winter issue. Submissions close on August 31 at 11.59pm PT. We respond to submissions in 30 days or less.

4 12

Shō Poetry Journal @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social · Aug 31

Last call for submissions for Shō No. 8! We're still seeking work for our winter issue. Submissions close on August 31 at 11.59pm PT. We respond to submissions in 30 days or less.

4 12