What do you think?
Rate this book
Ploughshares Winter 2019-2020
The Winter 2019-20 Issue. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature, and remains prescient in the digital age by providing readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares “the Triton among minnows.”
The Winter 2019-20 Issue, edited by Editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph and John Skoyles, features poetry and prose by Nick Arvin, Sallie Tisdale, Tony Hoagland, Gretchen Henderson, and Gail Mazur as well as Megan Pinto, Richie Hofmann, Daneen Wardrop, Jennifer Knox, Eric Burger, Keith Leonard, Jim Whiteside, Jim Daniels, Maggie Millner, Conor Bracken, Gabriel Welsch, Catie Rosemurgy, Malachi Black, Chelsea B. DesAutels, Traci Brimhall, Esther Lin, Grady Chambers, Barbara Tran, Courtney Faye Taylor, Stephen Browning, Claire Sibley, Lynne Thompson, Janan Alexandra, Kerrin McCadden, Erin Adair-Hodges, Emily Hoffman, Amelie Meltzer, Mark Winegardner, Daryl Farmer, Owen Good, Aurelie Sheehan, Diana Spechler, Kai Maristed, Katherine Sharpe, and Beulah Amsterdam.
The Winter 2019-20 Issue, edited by Editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph and John Skoyles, features poetry and prose by Nick Arvin, Sallie Tisdale, Tony Hoagland, Gretchen Henderson, and Gail Mazur as well as Megan Pinto, Richie Hofmann, Daneen Wardrop, Jennifer Knox, Eric Burger, Keith Leonard, Jim Whiteside, Jim Daniels, Maggie Millner, Conor Bracken, Gabriel Welsch, Catie Rosemurgy, Malachi Black, Chelsea B. DesAutels, Traci Brimhall, Esther Lin, Grady Chambers, Barbara Tran, Courtney Faye Taylor, Stephen Browning, Claire Sibley, Lynne Thompson, Janan Alexandra, Kerrin McCadden, Erin Adair-Hodges, Emily Hoffman, Amelie Meltzer, Mark Winegardner, Daryl Farmer, Owen Good, Aurelie Sheehan, Diana Spechler, Kai Maristed, Katherine Sharpe, and Beulah Amsterdam.
255 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
2 people are currently reading
3 people want to read
About the author
Ladette Randolph
35 books21 followersLadette Randolph is an American author and editor.
The editor-in-chief of Ploughshares, she is also on the faculty at Emerson College and is co-owner of the manuscript consulting firm Randolph Lundine.
She has been the recipient of a grant from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, as well as a Pushcart Prize, a Virginian Faulkner Award, and three Nebraska Book Awards.
(from Wikipedia)
The editor-in-chief of Ploughshares, she is also on the faculty at Emerson College and is co-owner of the manuscript consulting firm Randolph Lundine.
She has been the recipient of a grant from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, as well as a Pushcart Prize, a Virginian Faulkner Award, and three Nebraska Book Awards.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 15, 2020
One of the best parts about the Winter Ploughshares edition is that it includes the emerging writers contest winners. The stories always feel fresh and vibrant. (Even though I'm an edition behind in reading). So in no particular order, here are some of my favorite stories and poems from this edition:
Poetry:
Contender - Traci Brimhall
"It's alright to overdress for the riot. Your rage is stunning." And that's just the opening line. This poem. Guys its urgent and truth and just great.
Losing - Kerrin McCadden
A poem for a lost brother. There's a longing here that is felt acutely even though this poem is short.
Fiction:
Once a River - Daryl Farmer
In this story a journalist struggles with his privilege in reporting conditions in a refugee camp while having access to the dictator whose cruelty is well known. "Evil relies on a belief of its own inevitability, that it is a force that cannot ever be eradicated." Thinks the journalist as he rides in a helicopter with the dictator back to the refugee camp for nothing that can be good. Amid such evil what can one person do?
The Age of Migration - Kai Maristed
Charley and Karim move to France and Karim undergoes a radicalization. Charley gets entangled with another man who wants to take her away to America. She has choices, but does she? Charley is caught between obligations and understandings. She may or may not be free. It's a very nuanced, well written story.
Noise - Katherine Sharpe
I really liked this story about an aging rock star and a young journalist who has come to interview her. They've shared a lover and Luce thinks of the absurdity of this while also dealing with some teenage rebellion from her daughter.
An Older Woman - Diana Spechler
I also liked this story of a man hiding from his pain in a casual relationship with an older woman. The story starts out and you think it's about the woman but it's really about the man.
Emerging Writers
And not to be missed are the emerging writers winners:
Nonfiction - Pojangmacha People - Jung Hae Chae
A fluid retelling of generations of family trauma caused by alcoholism and enabling.
Poetry - a psalm in which i demand a new name for my kindred - Aurielle Marie
A love poem to friends and friendships. Full of inside jokes that read more like clues than snubs to a reader outside the circle.
Fiction - Creation - Ruby Todd
A sculpture artists finds inspiration in a dress bought on a whim for a party she didn't want to go to. I loved the artist's surprise at her own talent.
Poetry:
Contender - Traci Brimhall
"It's alright to overdress for the riot. Your rage is stunning." And that's just the opening line. This poem. Guys its urgent and truth and just great.
Losing - Kerrin McCadden
A poem for a lost brother. There's a longing here that is felt acutely even though this poem is short.
Fiction:
Once a River - Daryl Farmer
In this story a journalist struggles with his privilege in reporting conditions in a refugee camp while having access to the dictator whose cruelty is well known. "Evil relies on a belief of its own inevitability, that it is a force that cannot ever be eradicated." Thinks the journalist as he rides in a helicopter with the dictator back to the refugee camp for nothing that can be good. Amid such evil what can one person do?
The Age of Migration - Kai Maristed
Charley and Karim move to France and Karim undergoes a radicalization. Charley gets entangled with another man who wants to take her away to America. She has choices, but does she? Charley is caught between obligations and understandings. She may or may not be free. It's a very nuanced, well written story.
Noise - Katherine Sharpe
I really liked this story about an aging rock star and a young journalist who has come to interview her. They've shared a lover and Luce thinks of the absurdity of this while also dealing with some teenage rebellion from her daughter.
An Older Woman - Diana Spechler
I also liked this story of a man hiding from his pain in a casual relationship with an older woman. The story starts out and you think it's about the woman but it's really about the man.
Emerging Writers
And not to be missed are the emerging writers winners:
Nonfiction - Pojangmacha People - Jung Hae Chae
A fluid retelling of generations of family trauma caused by alcoholism and enabling.
Poetry - a psalm in which i demand a new name for my kindred - Aurielle Marie
A love poem to friends and friendships. Full of inside jokes that read more like clues than snubs to a reader outside the circle.
Fiction - Creation - Ruby Todd
A sculpture artists finds inspiration in a dress bought on a whim for a party she didn't want to go to. I loved the artist's surprise at her own talent.
January 21, 2024
If this collection was made of the stories Pojangmacha People, Pucker Factor, An Older Women, Noise, Bent Arrows, The Bear, Once A River, and Thinking Like A CrossWalk, and then you threw in the poems Abby the Comedian, Spratchet, and The Window in The Mirror, I'd give it five stars easily. That's not to say that the other work is bad, it's just that there is a wide diversity of artistic voices so it's inevitable that a couple wouldn't line up with my taste. I found some of them fascinating, but the problem with literary journals is that there's an appeal to a wide audience from a variety of authors, and as such, some of them made little to no impact on me
July 9, 2020
Favorites: The Age of Migration, Pucker Factor, The Sheep, & Pojangmacha People.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews