Johnny Cordova
@johnnycordova.bsky.social
700 followers 710 following 62 posts
Poet and co-editor of @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social Poems in Atlanta Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Louisiana Literature, New York Quarterly, Salt Hill Journal, and elsewhere. Johnnycordova.com
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johnnycordova.bsky.social
For those who don’t know me:

I dropped out of the literary scene for 17 years but managed to keep my soul intact. Now I’m back.

I co-edit Shō Poetry Journal with my wife, Dominique Ahkong.

@shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
@domkeykong.bsky.social
johnnycordova.bsky.social
It's a coach's responsibility to teach a young quarterback the wisdom of self-preservation.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
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"
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
LAST CALL!!!

Subs close at the top of the hour.
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
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.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
This weekend is the last chance to get your work in.
Submissions close Sunday at midnight (PT).

Submit: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Submissions close in 6 days! We're looking for more work to fill our pages for Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26).

Submit: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
[Illustration of two white stars and one white hummingbird shaped like a star, a take on The Star tarot card by Harim Choi. Text reads: Submissions close in 6 days.]
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
It's official: Shō Poetry Journal now nominates work for Best of the Net! We are pleased to share our nominees for the 2026 anthology.

Read these selected poems online at: shopoetryjournal.com/category/read/

These poems appear in Shō No. 7 (Summer 2025) alongside work by 41 other fantastic poets.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Submissions close in 6 days! We're looking for more work to fill our pages for Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26).

Submit: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
[Illustration of two white stars and one white hummingbird shaped like a star, a take on The Star tarot card by Harim Choi. Text reads: Submissions close in 6 days.]
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
bunkong.bsky.social
Sometimes I catch myself parenting in the shadow of the Khmer Rouge.

Thanks to @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social and its editors for publishing this poem.

Happy Sunday, All!
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
If you're sending out work this weekend, please keep us in mind.
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
We’ve entered the final month of our reading period for Shō No.8. Send us poems!

• Payment is one contributor copy

• We award prize money for best poem in issue and best poem by an emerging poet

• We nominate for Best New Poets, Best Spiritual Lit, and the Pushcart Prize
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Status Update: We've accepted 38 poems by 26 poets for our winter issue and are looking for more work! Each issue of Shō typically features 40-50 poets.

• Send 3-5 unpublished poems
• Submissions close August 31
• We respond to all submissions in 30 days or less

shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
Pastel yellow/orange backgrounded black text on dark purplish background. Text reads:

Join these poets in Shō No 8 Winter Issue

Sean Cho A.
Elisa Luna Ady
Apollo Chastain
Carlos Andrés Gómez
Iain Grinbergs
Shira Haus
Aiman Tahir Khan
Sophie Klahr
Elizabeth Loudon
Betsy Mitchell Martinez
Rebecca Morton
Lisa Mottolo
James O’Leary
Konstantinos Patrinos

Ngoc Pham
Jessica Nirvana Ram
Jemma Leigh Roe
Adrie Rose
SM Stubbs
Virgil Suárez
Tiezst Taylor
Reed Turchi
Margaret Wack
Joey Wańczyk
Gwenyth Wheat
Yan Zhang

Submit: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
Submissions close August 31
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
We’ve entered the final month of our reading period for Shō No.8. Send us poems!

• Payment is one contributor copy

• We award prize money for best poem in issue and best poem by an emerging poet

• We nominate for Best New Poets, Best Spiritual Lit, and the Pushcart Prize
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
We are reading submissions for our winter issue. If you love holding a volume of poetry in your hands and like the work we've published, check us out! Submit 3-5 unpublished poems, no theme.

shopoetryjournal.submittable.com

Cover art: Close-up from "Interim" by Tanya Rastogi.
Yellow text on midnight-hued background. Oil painting on canvas shows a full yellow moon in a misty shadowed forest at night. Text reads: Shō Poetry Journal · An Arizona-based print journal · Open for Submissions · Send us 3-5 poems · We respond within 30 days · Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/26) · shopoetryjournal.submittable.com
johnnycordova.bsky.social
I absolutely have an imaginary reader in mind but have no idea who it is 😂
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
If you're sending out work this weekend, please keep us in mind.

• Payment is one contributor copy

• We nominate for Best New Poets, Best Spiritual Lit, and the Pushcart Prize

• We award prize money for best poem in issue and best poem by an emerging poet
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Submissions to Shō Poetry Journal are always free for Native American and Indigenous Canadian poets. Details: shopoetryjournal.submittable.com

Cover Art from "In Gilded Walls" by Tanya Rastogi, Shō No. 6 (Winter 2024/25)
johnnycordova.bsky.social
But have you been rejected by Taco Bell Quarterly while eating a bean burrito?
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
amorak.bsky.social
The new issue of @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social is gorgeous & I’m grateful to have two poems in it. Here’s one:
Shō Poetry Journal on a kitchen counter. Cover depicts a gorgeous blue painting of a figure in a white dress with a bird head sitting on a limb under the moon. AMORAK HUEY

Beer Garden, Ohio

Nearby, someone sparks a cigar to life, 
the odor of it rises, is what 
we both will remember later— 
not the light, which is ordinary, 
nor the depth of the sky, 
the ever so slightest of winds, absence 
of temperature-but the smell 
of burning earth, rich like that, 
and the rough wood table between us 
and the fear neither of us can shake 
that none of this is real,
that like the smoke it could all go away 
which it could, but it hasn't.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
aaroncaycedokimura.bsky.social
Many thanks to @domkeykong.bsky.social and @johnnycordova.bsky.social for including my poems “From the Great Depression” and “Summer Evening” in the latest issue of @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social! It’s a beautiful issue. #poetry #poems #poets #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers #poetryreaders
Cover of Shō Poetry Journal No. 7 Page 1 of “From the Great Depression” by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura Page 2 of “From the Great Depression” by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura “Summer Evening” by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
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-...
Sho no 7 fresh off the press
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
New poem online! “somehow” by Ohia, Ernest Chigaemezu appears in Shō Poetry Journal's Summer 2025 issue and was selected by the editors as the Winner of the Sita Martin Prize.

Read the poem (with audio read by the poet’s friend, Aidan Miles-Jamison) at shopoetryjournal.com/ernest-ohia/
Text reads: READ A POEM SHÔ NO. 7 (SUMMER 2025)

from "somehow" it begins with <b>dreams</b> are like cicadas clueless where your heart flutters nonstop in an airplane bound for <b>america</b> used be a part of <b>your dreams</b> now throwing a wild party & you're your papery heart too dumb to know what it feels like to be held by a man calls you baby and the whole world condenses too soon About this poem: This poem was my first real reckoning with the fact that I was leaving my country for another. At the time, I didn’t yet understand the weight of that truth. In the morning, I carried on with my life as if nothing mattered. But, at night, I would bawl my eyes out at the thought of everything I had left behind. So, writing this poem felt necessary; I didn’t want that feeling of letting go to slip away.
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Take a peek at our summer issue! Read "Nocturne" by Christian J. Collier, a poem selected by the editors as the Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize.

shopoetryjournal.com/christian-j-...
from "Nocturne"

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 ofgale of gale / as fog-sopped night made kindred of me.

CHRISTIAN J. COLLIER
Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
If you're sending out work this weekend, please keep us in mind.

• Payment is one contributor copy

• We nominate for Best New Poets, Best Spiritual Lit, and the Pushcart Prize

• We award prize money for best poem in issue and best poem by an emerging poet
Reposted by Johnny Cordova
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
New poem online! “Symptoms of Ghosts” by Aldo Amparán (@skygoneout.bsky.social) is forthcoming in our summer issue, Shō No. 7, and was selected by the editors as the runner-up for the Shō Poetry Prize.

Read the poem (with audio by the poet) here: shopoetryjournal.com/aldo-amparan/
Light beige background. Sliver of a dark night image at the top, a ghostly night forest scene: a girl in a long white dress and a bird head mask sits on a bough. Beige text reads: Read a Poem     Summer 2025. Main text reads: "from 'Symptoms of Ghosts' I used to write / my colors in past // tense: I was redded. / I was blued. I was /  violented. Often // misspelled / certain truths. – Aldo Amparán, Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up." Small circle-cut photo of a person with short, reddish-brown hair & a neatly trimmed goatee wears a black beret & a black sweater, standing among leafless branches. A few years ago, I stumbled upon an article in LGBTQ Nation titled “85% of gay people are possessed by ghosts according to ‘spiritual research.’” As a queer person & avid consumer of all things strange & spooky, I was amused by the claim, but it lingered with me in a more introspective way. It reminded me of all the damaging refrains used to explain someone’s queerness, & how some of them were true for me: experiencing childhood trauma, growing up without a father.

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/symptomsofghosts