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The Ice Trilogy Vladimir Sorokin (Translated by Jamey Gambrell) New York Review of Books, March 2011 704 pages $19.95 The Ice Trilogy, a newly translated work of fiction by Vladimir Sorokin, tells the tale of the 20th century’s tragedies and triumphs through the eccentric and abrasive narratives of—to be charitable—a cult of assholes. At the…
In passing with my mind on nothing in the world but the right of way I enjoy on the road by virtue of the law… ––William Carlos Williams, Spring and All, XI There are no more guilt-free Sunday drives, no cleanly joyful joy-rides. And maybe there never were. Maybe the true joy-ride – that exhilarating…
We have another great back issue just waiting to be read this week, as a part of our free Ploughshares contest occurring in honor of our upcoming fortieth anniversary. Today, it’s the all-fiction Fall 2004 issue, guest edited by Amy Bloom and featuring stories by Thomas Beller, Debra Spark, and many more. The rules are…
The Stroke of a Pen: Essays on Poetry and Other ProvocationsSamuel HazoUniversity of Notre Dame Press, May 2011136 pages$20.00 In the semi-rural pocket of Pennsylvania where I grew up, poets are a rarity. Last year, as I prepared to uproot my life and move to Boston to pursue a poetry degree, my decision was regarded…
I first read The Sun Also Rises in college, in a survey course of the American Novel. I don’t know if such survey courses even exist anymore, or if Hemingway is still taught to our undergraduates. But I took this class during springtime in Kentucky, which is long and warm, and I would read the…
This fall, for the first time in three years, I’ll be teaching an undergraduate poetry writing seminar at my university. Because it’s been some years, it’s time to rethink that class; it’s also time because, as in most institutions, class sizes are rising, and the good old standby of “on the following twelve dates we’ll…
Blake Butler Harper Perennial, April 2011 416 pages $15.99 Literary experimentation has been successfully blended with genre fiction before; Robert Coover’s Ghost Town used the western, and Paul Auster’s New York Triology, noir. And though Blake Butler may not be the first to try the trick with horror, no one has previously done it as…
How do we find good critical readers for our work? Whose eyes will see it as ours can’t or won’t? Who makes for a better critic – a sympathetic reader, or a skeptical one? We ask much of these readers – they must devote time and emotion and thought. They must have knowledge of the…
Round four of our free Ploughshares contest! This week, comment to win a copy of our Spring 1987 issue, guest edited by Derek Walcott and featuring work by Rita Dove, Jorie Graham, Seamus Heaney, and many more. For those of you that don’t know the drill: comment in our response section below telling us why…
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