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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: April 2012
Gatekeepers (Part Three), on comparing apples to desperate, near-extinct marsupials braving the Pacific in coconut dinghies
At its most basic, a literary editor’s job is a series of “either/or” decisions, or a long and hopefully-not-very-drunken game of “would you rather”: the editor takes a stack of poems/stories/essays and weighs them against each other to choose what … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged abstract, comparison, Gatekeepers, Guest Bloggers, imagery, metaphor, Sean Bishop, surreal, symbolism
2 Comments
The Death of Poetry?
With Easter and Passover falling early in April, Poetry Month began in full earnest later than usual here in New York City, about the middle of the month. While some continue to wait their turns in line to decry … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged death of poetry, Fady Joudah, Ghassan Zaqtan, Guest Bloggers, Jim Tolan, poetry
10 Comments
Women in Trouble: Clover Adams
Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life Natalie Dykstra Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 2012 336 pages $26.00 Clover Adams, best known as the genteel and witty wife of nineteenth century writer Henry Adams, was a hobbyist photographer who killed herself … Continue reading
A Night at the Pub
Last Friday was Ploughshares’s special 40th Anniversary reading at Joe’s Pub, in New York City—in collaboration with the wonderful Writers Studio, who were helpful and gracious hosts throughout. The event featured our fiction editor, Margot Livesey, alongside a foursome of guest … Continue reading
Posted in Events, Ploughshares News
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Book People
Apparently, E.L. Doctorow once taught a course that only had one book on the syllabus. The class read the one book and decided from there what the next book should be. If it was Jane Eyre, somebody might then suggest … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged Guest Bloggers, literature, literature classes, Michael Klein, reading
1 Comment
Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life Presents Marina Tsvetaeva
Up to the age of four, as my mother testified, I told only the truth, but after that I must have come to my senses – Marina Tsvetaeva I made an Easter quiche yesterday, and as I worked I … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged Guest Bloggers, Marina Tsvetaeva, Patricia Caspers, poetry, translation
4 Comments
Gatekeepers (Part Two), why my pop-music philistinism makes me fear for the poetic canon
Gatekeeper, seasons wait for your nod. / Gatekeeper, you held your breath, / made the summer go on and on.—Feist Here’s a confession, Ploughshares readers: I’m a musical dinosaur. I have an unabashed love for Green Day and Counting … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged contemporary music, contemporary poetry, Gatekeepers, Guest Bloggers, poetry, Sean Bishop
9 Comments
A Land More Kind Than Home
A Land More Kind Than Home Wiley Cash William Morrow, April 2012 $24.99 320 pages I don’t want to obscure the issue here, so I will be brief: A Land More Kind Than Home is a book you will be … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews
Tagged A Land More Kind Than Home, Book Reviews, Claire Blechman, novel, Wiley Cash
1 Comment
Half Moon Pose and the Writer’s Split Consciousness
You can get into Half Moon pose in any number of ways, but here’s the sequence I like best: 1. From down dog, lift your right leg, inhale. 2. Step the leg between your hands into a low lunge, exhale. … Continue reading
Posted in Guest Bloggers
Tagged Amy Hempel, Guest Bloggers, Jamie Quatro, split conciousness, yoga
10 Comments
Racetracks in America, For Example
When I was writing Track Conditions, a memoir about my mostly drunken experience as a groom to Swale, the 1984 Kentucky Derby winner, a strange thing happened to my body—it went back to the way it looked during the time … Continue reading
