Roundup: Writing advice, tips, and lists
As we look forward to updating the Ploughshares blog for the new year, we’re also looking back at all the great posts since the blog started in 2009. Our roundups explore the archives and gather past posts around a certain theme to help you jump-start your week. This week
Blurbese: Direct Quotations
If you happened to read more than one review of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy last month, you’ll never look at a condom the same way again. That’s because of a single line from the book, which the New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, the Daily Beast, and Library
Literary Boroughs #27: Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The
THAT LIT, LIT LIFE (with global characteristics) 10 (of 14)
So Kwame Senu Neville Dawes landed on our shores—from one island to another, Jamaica to Hong Kong—except that this being that lit, lit life, he came via Nebraska. But of course, where else would a Ghanaian-Jamaican writer who ROCKS fly from if not Lincoln, Nebraska? He wowed our MFA writers
Literary Boroughs #26: Reno/Lake Tahoe, Nevada
The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The
Roundup: Finding Time and Space to Write
As we look forward to updating the Ploughshares blog for the new year, we’re also looking back at all the great posts since the blog started in 2009. Our roundups explore the archives and gather past posts around a certain theme to help you jump-start your week. This week
THAT LIT, LIT LIFE (with global characteristics) 9 (of 14)
So there I was, my head in Colm Tóibín’s Ireland (more, later) while chattering about Mo Yan’s China on BBC World TV. It was Friday, October 12, 2012 at 0615 hours in Central, Hong Kong. An ungodly hour (up at 0430 hours to reach their studios on time) to
Care of Wooden Floors
Care of Wooden Floors Will Wiles New Harvest, October 2012 304 pages $24.00 In Will Wiles’ debut novel Care Of Wooden Floors, an unnamed narrator is invited to mind an empty apartment in an unspecified Eastern European city. Upon his arrival the narrator discovers that his friend, Oskar, infamous
I Don’t Stand Alone: Poets Orlando White and Sherwin Bitsui on the Importance of Mentors
Whether it’s in the acknowledgment section of their books or in daily prayers of gratitude, many writers thank mentors for helping to shape their paths as artists. In the interview below, authors Sherwin Bitsui and Orlando White graciously open the window to their friendship and writing. How did
Literary Boroughs #25: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The