Amanda Grace Shu
Poet and writer.
For poems, stories, and publication news delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe below.
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
Corvid Thanatology & Twa Corbies
Poetics: Corvids, Bainbridge Island Press
September 23, 2025
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
Recent Posts
POETICS: CORVIDS Anthology from Bainbridge Island Press & Pushcart Prize Nomination
Poetics: Corvids, a crow-themed anthology from Bainbridge Island Press, is now available for pre-order. It features two poems by me, “Corvid Thanatology” and “Twa Corbies.” POETICS: Corvids explores the ancient kinship between ravens, crows, and their corvid kin through the lens of contemporary poetry. This inaugural volume brings together diverse voices examining these intelligent, mysterious…
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.
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,…
Aᴍᴀɴᴅᴀ Gʀᴀᴄᴇ Sʜᴜ © 2021
Amanda Grace Shu 