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If You Knew Then What I Know Now Ryan Van Meter Sarabande Books, April 2011 176 pages $15.95 In “First,” the opening essay of Ryan Van Meter’s autobiographical collection, Van Meter’s five-year-old self tells his best friend Ben that he loves him. When Ben responds the same way, Van Meter takes the next leap and…

Awake.  This far north the sun is an early riser, though it stays groggy with fog till mid-morning.  The red-checked garter snake still sleeps beneath the front stoop; the window spider still clings to the center of last night’s web, spangled with wings.  The desultory cries of a crow.  An old engine clearing its throat…

We’ve arrived at week eight of our free Ploughshares contest, and we’re reaching back in the archives to feature our Spring 1990 issue, guest-edited by Rita Dove and featuring work by Marilyn Hacker and many others! Fun fact: this issue is actually a few months older than the intern typing this to you.   In…

America Pacifica: A Novel Anna North Reagan Arthur Books, May 2011 304 pages $24.99 In her debut novel, Anna North dares to enter the dystopic territory staked out by the ruling high priestesses of literary speculative fiction, Margaret Atwood and Octavia E. Butler: America Pacifica features an ordinary heroine with an extraordinary destiny; a punishing climate;…

I love The Writer’s Chapbook. Compiled by the late, great George Plimpton from the Paris Review’s Writers at Work series, this volume is a collection of wisdom from 20th Century writers about anything and everything literary, from first efforts to children’s books, from sex to writers’ colonies (which often go hand-in-hand).  The section on technique…

We’re pleased to present the second reader review following our weekly Free Ploughshares contest. Today, reader Lynette D’Amico will be looking at our Fall 1998 issue, guest edited by Lorrie Moore.   Ploughshares Fall 1998 Fiction Issue, guest-edited by Lorrie Moore. Featuring work by Mona Simpson, Charles Baxter, and Gish Jen. 247 pages. $10.95. Above…

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, guest-edited by Gish Jen. Featuring work…

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 Duchess (medievalist spouse:  “are you mad? …

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 night—to make the frenzied contemporary world…