Uncategorized Archive
A Reader Recalls Gish Jen
Thanks to everyone who has been entering our weekly Free Ploughshares contest! Today we are featuring a reader review of our Fall 2000 issue guest edited by Gish Jen, whose writing helped reader Christina A. Hitchcock introduce a new voice and perspective to her students. Ploughshares Fall 2010,
Better Late
According to my medievalist spouse, Geoffrey Chaucer entered into the prime of his literary career, which has spanned the intervening five centuries, around the age of 40. Presumably he was writing some things before that, and we can quibble about whether to count as major The Book of the
Orientation
Orientation Daniel Orozco Faber & Faber, May 2011 176 pages $23.00 In The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work,) a book of essays and photos, Alain de Botton attempts an “exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people get up to all day—and
A Conversation with Kim Addonizio
I got a chance to sit down with Kim Addonizio and talk about poetry, the blues, and her new rock and roll band Nonstop Beautiful Ladies. PK: The relationship between poetry and music has long been a contentious one. Ezra Pound in ABC of Reading argued that “poetry
Free Ploughshares: Mark Doty
It’s time for week seven of our Free Ploughshares Summer Contest! This week we’re offering our Spring 1999 issue, guest edited by Mark Doty and featuring poems and stories from writers such as Sharon Olds, Lucille Clifton, Tony Hoagland, and many more. In order to win, simply comment below
Dhaka Dust
Dhaka Dust Dilruba Ahmed Graywolf Press, June 2011 88 pages $15.00 “Can’t occupy the same space at the same time,” begins the title poem of Dhaka Dust, Dilruba Ahmed’s impressive debut collection. And yet Ahmed’s work, situated across the Midwestern United States, Bangladesh, and Europe, often occupies more than
Occupational Hazard
I started writing “Occupational Hazard” eight years ago, out at the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts. I had a bedroom/studio in an old house, former officer’s quarters, and I found myself sleepy all the time. It was so quiet, there—a break from my Tenderloin apartment in the city—and
Lighten Up, Francis
True confession: I’m not a rabid fan of poetry readings. On one level this is, of course, fairly rampant hypocrisy, considering that I give readings and hope to give many more (and, someday, to be paid for some of them, but let’s not talk crazy.) But on another level
The Chronology of Water
The Chronology of Water Lidia Yuknavitch Hawthorne Books, April 2011 268 pages $15.95 “Little tragedies are difficult to keep straight,” writes Lidia Yuknavitch in The Chronology of Water. “They swell and dive in and out in great sinkholes in the brain.” The loss of her daughter, stillborn, is precisely
Free Ploughshares, Round Six: Seamus Heaney
We’ve really enjoyed all of the great comments we’ve been receiving through this contest, and this week we’re excited to offer yet another fantastic back issue of Ploughshares to a lucky winner. It’s the all-poetry Spring 1984 issue guest edited by the Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, and featuring