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Ploughshares is the award-winning non-profit literary magazine based at Emerson College in Boston. Most of our print issues are guest-edited, and our mission is to present varying viewpoints. Our blog is an extension of our print publication, and so we feature writing from guest-bloggers. We present their opinions to our readers in order to foster a lively discussion, but do not necessarily endorse all viewpoints published on our blog.
Comments: We moderate all comments on this blog, both to prevent spammers and keep the conversation civil. Comments will be published whether they agree or disagree with the post, as long as they are expressed respectfully and without personally attacking the author or other commenters.
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Monthly Archives: May 2011
Why I Reread “Paper Lantern”
Every Memorial Day my grandmother took flowers to the graves of people she had known, military or not. She was a southern transplant, with ancestors that fought on both sides of the Civil War, but she lived in my grandfather’s … Continue reading
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Good Poets You’ve (Probably) Never Read, Part I: Buckram and Burning Birds
Everyone has them—the books that we loved that got only cursory critical attention, if any. The friends who managed to get the books finally, finally into print, only to hear a few grains of sand shifting in the long silence … Continue reading
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Mood
Mood: a predominant emotion; disposition; a conscious state of mind. Etymologically, “mood” at its root is anger, anger and its sometime sidekick, courage, though, the book cautions us, mood’s ultimate origin is unknown. Because who can really say where a … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
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Ribbons for Ploughshares’ Writers!
We just received the list of Best American stories and essays, and were happy to see lots of familiar names. It would take too long to mention all of the former contributors and guest editors on the list, but here … Continue reading
Posted in Ploughshares News
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Why I Reread “Simon’s Luck”
Alice Munro has been a popular literary writer of short stories for decades. She moves from subtle interior discomfort to the most blatant of coincidences without apology. “Simon’s Luck” is a short story from the book that could be called … Continue reading
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The Pit Bull
It feels as though every posting starts somewhere else, and this is no exception. I’ve been reading one of Angela’s “Why I Reread…” postings, in the midst of state and federal budget cuts which, far from rereading much of anything, … Continue reading
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Gary Fincke on “At Midnight, on my Birthday”
Gary Fincke’s poem, “At Midnight, on my Birthday,” appears in our Spring 2011 issue, guest edited by Colm Toibin. The poem opens with these lines: My mother, dead at my age, unclasps her beaded purse as if entering my house … Continue reading
Posted in Contributors' Notes
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Facing Night
What reaches for the sun. What turns green panes flat to the zenith. A green order in the bay window, quatrefoil. Egg-toothed cotyledon. ~ There’s something to know and it can’t be known and I have to know it. It … Continue reading
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Why I Reread This Boy’s Life
I sometimes take comfort in categorizations. The world can always be divided into two populations, it can be obnoxiously insisted: those who send thank-you notes and those who don’t, those who have seen American Idol and those who haven’t…those who … Continue reading
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Step Away from the Tab Key…or Don’t
As a change from the didacticism and mostly-benign aesthetic dictatorship of my recent posts, and before I review anything (though that’s coming), perhaps it’s time I ask a question instead of attempting to answer any. Within recent memory I had … Continue reading
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