Author Archive

The 2016 Ploughshares Count

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Every year at the open of the annual AWP Conference, we publish our gender statistics, taking a cue from VIDA’s important work. While we don’t collect demographic information on any of our writers, we publish the gender statistics of those whose gender identities we can find documented elsewhere (their

The 2015 Ploughshares Count

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Last year, we announced our gender statistics following the release of the 2014 VIDA Count. We’re keeping with the tradition this year, and are happy to announce our count for 2015. The gender identity, race, sexuality, and disability disparities in the publishing industry are concerning, and we hope that making

The 2014 Ploughshares Count

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VIDA released its much-awaited 2014 Count last night, contributing important data to a conversation that seems to have been getting louder over the past couple of months. The gender disparity in the world of literature is far-reaching, with every facet of publishing coming, quite rightly, under scrutiny. We at

Review: BRIGHT SHARDS OF SOMEPLACE ELSE by Monica McFawn

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Bright Shards of Someplace Else Monica McFawn University of Georgia Press, September 2014 176 pages $24.95 Buy: book Every writer has faced the age-old question, “What makes a story?” History has provided us with plenty of satisfactory answers—in the excitement found in novelty or the resonance found in the

Review: ZOOLOGIES: ON ANIMALS AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT by Alison Hawthorne Deming

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Zoologies: On Animals And The Human Spirit Alison Hawthorne Deming Milkweed Editions, October 2014 272 pages $18.00 Buy: book As children, many of us felt instinctually connected to and curious about animals. Maybe we even found solace in imagining our personal dinosaur counterparts. Alison Hawthorne Deming’s book Zoologies: On

Review: LIKE A BEGGAR by Ellen Bass

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Like a Beggar Ellen Bass Copper Canyon Press, March 2014 70 pages $16.00 Buy: book Exquisitely wrought in language and imagery, Ellen Bass’s third collection meditates on sequencing images. Her poems open in one place and close elsewhere. She signals this with titles that point toward the firsts and lasts,

Review: Dismembering the American Dream: The Life and Fiction of Richard Yates

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Dismembering the American Dream: The Life and Fiction of Richard Yates Kate Charlton-Jones University of Alabama Press, August 2014 279 pages $49.95 Buy: book | ebook An English professor, a former colleague of mine, once admitted to me that he wasn’t much of a fan of the novelist about

Review: Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine

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Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz Gotham Books, September 2014 372 pages $27.50 Buy: book | ebook As a schoolchild in North Philadelphia, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz went on class trips to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, which

Literary Boroughs #57: Riverside, CA

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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. The series originally ran on our blog from May 2012 until April 2013.

Review: The Infinitesimals

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The Infinitesimals Laura Kasischke Copper Canyon Press, July 2014 100 pages $16.00 Buy: book Imagine a strange land where tumors that resemble “terrible frogs,” a man with an “unbuttoned” face, and an ever-returning sea beast dwell, and where motherhood is a “grand opera staged in a cave.” This is