Submissions

Submit to Shō Poetry Journal

Submissions for Cover Art are open until October 12.
Poetry Submissions are closed

Submissions are accepted via Submittable. Please do not send submissions via our contact form, email, or social media channels; they will be discarded.

We encourage submitters to familiarize themselves with work previously published in Shō Poetry Journal. US-based poets may purchase print issues here, and individual poems are available to read online for free.

Submission Guidelines: Cover Art

We are seeking striking cover art for Shō No. 8 (for release in January 2026). The selected artwork will be featured on the cover of our winter issue, on our social media platforms, and will be used for promotional purposes.

Payment is one contributor copy and a small honorarium. Due to the high costs of international shipping, artists based outside the U.S. may either receive a PDF copy of the journal or a print copy in place of the honorarium.

Responses will be sent by the end of October 2025.

Submit here.

Full guidelines

• Submit up to eight original high-resolution images (as individual images). We will consider one submission per artist.
• We are interested in a variety of mediums, but have a strong preference for painting and illustration in full color. We will also consider photography, graphic design, and mixed media. We are open to all styles.

Please include the following information in your cover letter:

• The title(s) of your work, medium, year completed.
• A short third-person biographical statement (approx. 50 words) and links to your portfolio or any social media platforms you use to promote your work.
• An artist’s statement (optional).
• If the artwork you are submitting has appeared online or in a gallery, please include a link. If it is previously unpublished (including blogs and social media), please mention this. Please do not include artwork that has previously appeared in print.

Image requirements

• Art must not have been created or manipulated using AI.
• File format: jpg, png, or tiff
• Resolution: 300 dpi
• Image size: At least 1875 x 2775 pixels. We will consider landscape-oriented images if they can wrap around the front and back of the journal, with enough negative space on the back to list contributor names.

Submission Guidelines: Poetry

Reading Periods

Summer issue: December 1 to March 1
Winter issue: June 1 to August 31

As an Arizona-based journal, we offer free submissions to Native American and Indigenous Canadian poets as a gesture of solidarity.

We also offer at least one free pop-up window to BIPOC poets during every reading period and occasionally offer free pop-ups to all. Dates are announced—with advance notice—on Instagram. Follow us on Submittable to see when we’re open!

Guidelines

• Submit up to five poems at a time. We do not accept previously published work (this includes poems posted to social media or to personal websites). We do not accept multiple submissions; please do not submit additional work until you’ve heard back from us regarding a previous submission.

• Your cover letter should include the titles you are submitting and any information you’d like us to know. If your poem is ‘after’ another poet, please name the poem it’s after, or provide any relevant details in your cover letter.

Submit a short third-person bio (Roughly 60 words or less).

• 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. Please do not withdraw your poems via our contact form or email.

• We do not accept AI-generated work.

• We do not accept multiple submissions. Once you’ve heard back from us, you may submit again. We do not currently place a cap on the number of times a person may submit during a single reading period, but ask that you submit your best work!

Formatting

• Please include page numbers and your name on every page.

Response time

Our average response time is 2 weeks. We attempt to respond to all submissions within 30 days or less.

If your submission is more than 30 days old and you have not received a response, please check your Submittable account and send us a message. Often, submitters may not see a response because their email notifications appear in their spam folders.

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.

All work accepted for publication will be considered for the Shō Poetry Prize (best poem in issue) and the Sita Martin Prize (best poem by an emerging poet with no full-length collection). Each winner receives $150 and a one-year subscription to Shō.

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.

Mail submissions for incarcerated poets