Travels with Grond
Many years ago, my mother took me to the Library of Congress to hear Galway Kinnell read. She had written her Master’s thesis on Kinnell, a thesis I’d read a time or three, so we were looking forward to hearing the living voice. The living voice said a number
A Riot of Goldfish
A Riot of Goldfish Kanoko Okamoto (Translated by J. Keith Vincent) Hesperus Worldwide, January 2011 114 pages $15.95 David Mitchell, in his fine introduction to this slim volume of two novellas, writes that author Kanoko Okamoto’s great theme is the “frustrated striving for aesthetic perfection.” Certainly her novellas have
Meter
I am a poet without a kind. I write formal poems in an age of free verse (not to mention poetry in an age of prose!), but I don’t feel kinship with the most visible formalist movements. The divide I feel goes beyond subject matter and worldview, though these
Our Third Free Ploughshares: Sherman Alexie
Once again, we are delving into the annals of Ploughshares history for our contest. This week, we’re featuring the Sherman Alexie issue from Winter 2000. All you need to do to win this wonderful issue is provide a comment in the response section below detailing why you love Sherman
The Pun Also Rises
The Pun Also Rises John Pollack Gotham Books, April 2011 240 pages $22.50 I’ve long loved wordplay, and long been puzzled, too, that many in the literary community don’t—especially, it seems, in my peculiar branch of it in Boston. Aren’t writers meant to be passionate about words and all
Why I Reread Lithium for Medea
I came to Kate Braverman through her story “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta,” which appears in the collection Squandering the Blue and was chosen for the Best American Short Stories in 1991. In 1991 I was still in college, which is to say a tiny, evangelical college in
Books for the Beltane Season
Diana’s e-mail that Ploughshares was interested in blogs about summer reading was a happy occasion, and not only because it preempted that sometimes-desperate scrabble for appropriate blog topics, as in (because I also teach grammar and usage) “Brian! Would anybody read it if I blogged about the semi-colon versus
Free Ploughshares, Part Two: Tim O’Brien and Mark Strand
It’s time for the second round of our fabulous Ploughshares sweepstakes! This week we’ll be giving away a copy of our Winter 1995/96 issue, guest edited by Tim O’Brien and Mark Strand, and featuring works by Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Charles Simic, Joyce Carol Oates, and many more. In
Kasha
This weekend, in the spirit of trying something new in the kitchen, I cooked up some kasha. I will not be cooking up any more kasha. Kasha, for those of you who are like I was until very recently – that is, blissfully unaware of all manner of things
To the Lighthouse
Many writers weigh in on the effect of today’s numerous MFA programs on the quality of contemporary fiction writing. Like others, I am—helpfully—100% ambivalent. The MFA served me well in many ways. After I graduated from college I went right into a full-time job editing sewage treatment reports for