Amanda Grace Shu
Poet and writer.
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About Me
I am a biracial Asian-American poet and fiction writer, and an MFA candidate at Sarah Lawrence College. I am a lover of language and all its chaotic, inventive, and endlessly changing beauty, and I believe that words can build worlds both fantastical and familiar. To me, creative writing is a powerfully empathetic act through which we humans come to truly understand one another.
I also obsess over cats and give my pens silly names like Stu-Pendous, Pentoum, and Penny Lane.
My poetry has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, Mass Poetry’s Hard Work of Hope series, and Kaleidoscope. In 2021, I was longlisted for the Palette Poetry Emerging Poet Prize, and my poem “Where Are You Really From?” won the Empower Her* Voice Creative Writing Contest.
My fiction has been featured in Daily Science Fiction, and I am a graduate of the 2014 and 2015 Alpha Young Writers’ Workshop and the 2013 Juniper Institute for Young Writers.
Published Works & Awards
Pᴏᴇᴛʀʏ
Where Are You Really From?
2021 Empower Her* Voice Creative Writing Contest
Winner – Poetry
Publication forthcoming July 2022
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
Reverse Orpheus
Commonthought, Lesley University
December 2019
Spacedad
Daily Science Fiction
March 2016
Barton Hollow
The Marble Collection
February 2013
Recent Posts
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 togetherContinue reading “Winner of the Empower Her* Voice 2021 Creative Writing Contest”
Longlisted for the Palette Poetry 2021 Emerging Poet Prize
Read more on their website. Congratulations to all the winners, finalists, and fellow longlisters!
Spacedad
Each time he comes home, his face changes. He is an old man at her birth, a youth at her third birthday party, and a fifty-something when he walks her to her first day of kindergarten. She hears the adults mutter about how Clare’s mother can’t keep a husband longer than a year, and Clare can barely suppress her giggles. You don’t get it. All those men—they’re all one husband.
She tells her second-grade class, My daddy is in space . . .
Aᴍᴀɴᴅᴀ Gʀᴀᴄᴇ Sʜᴜ © 2021
Amanda Grace Shu 