Amanda Grace Shu

Poet and writer.

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About Me

Amanda Grace Shu is a biracial Asian-American poet and fiction writer, and a recent MFA graduate from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poetry has been published in Sequestrum, The American Journal of Poetry, Kaleidoscope, and Mass Poetry’s Hard Work of Hope series, and her fiction in Daily Science Fiction. A lover of language and all its chaotic, inventive, and endlessly changing beauty, she believes that words can build worlds both fantastical and familiar, and that creative writing is a powerful empathetic act through which we come to truly understand one another. She also obsesses over cats, writes trivia games, and names her pens after silly puns.

Published Works & Awards

Pᴏᴇᴛʀʏ

Becoming Horizon, Gardeners, & Hanahaki
Sequestrum Literary Journal
Issue 39 (Spring 2024)

Corvid Thanatology
Laura Kirchman Manuelidis ’63 Science and Literary Arts Contest (Sarah Lawrence College)
Winner – First Place

Where Are You Really From?
2021 Empower Her* Voice Writing Contest
Winner – Poetry

Palette Poetry 2021 Emerging Poet Prize
Longlisted
July 2021

Ode to My Muscles
Kaleidoscope Magazine
September 2020

Ledger of Doubts, Unmasked
Mass Poetry’s The Hard Work of Hope series
June 2020

Minidoka to Austin
The American Journal of Poetry
January 2020

Do You Speak Chinese?
Commonthought, Lesley University
December 2019

Comprendre
Mass Poetry’s Poetry on the T Contest
Co-winner
May 2015

Azure
Smith College Poetry Prize for High School Girls
Semifinalist
March 2014

For Maya and Matilda
Mock Orange Magazine
November 2013

Fɪᴄᴛɪᴏɴ

Spacedad
Daily Science Fiction
March 2016

Barton Hollow
The Marble Collection
February 2013

Becoming Horizon, Hanahaki, & Gardeners

Three of my poems, “Becoming Horizon,” “Gardeners,” and “Hanahaki,” have now been published in Sequestrum Literary Journal, along with a Q&A with yours truly.

May 15, 2024

Where Are You Really From?

Winner of the 2021 Empower Her* Voice Creative Writing Contest. Judge Cheryl Buchanan commented: “From its captivating first line, People are rarely satisfied with Massachusetts, which leads the reader all over the globe and back, this poem is a reclamation and a ride through our geography, our history, and our collective quest to identify, categorize,…

July 23, 2022

Winner of the Empower Her* Voice 2021 Creative Writing Contest

My poem “Where Are You Really From?” won first prize in the poetry category of Empower Her* Voice’s 2021 Creative Writing Contest on the theme of Stereotypes and Perceptions. According to their website, “EmpowerHer*Voice is a platform that spotlights the innovative vision and lived experiences of people of marginalised genders worldwide. Our platform brings together…

February 18, 2022

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