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An image of an abstract painting.

Voice: Self

I want to preface this whole thing by saying that I’m not writing this because of the Rankine/Hoagland debate that sprung up in/around/after AWP. I’m happy that conversation is in existence, and I’m glad people are debating notions of voice, ownership, and race, but that’s not necessarily where this started. I should also mention that I was thinking about this stuff before I…

Image of desks in a classroom.

Rules, Shmules

Because several of my preceding posts have been very earnest, and also, possibly, a little depressing, I thought that it might be nice to end my tenure as a Ploughshares blogger on an upbeat note.  With this in mind, I recently asked a group of anonymous literary authorities to comment on some of the writing…

illustrated rendering of stacks of books that resemble skyscrapers - a man with glasses sits atop one of these stacks reading a book

The Proposal

Here’s my proposal: I think all of us who write and submit creative work for publication should, for every ten submissions we send out, review at least one book for publication somewhere—Bookslut, Rain Taxi, the Rumpus, wherever. There should be some cut-off point—let’s say after you’ve got at least two books of your own, your…

Photograph of the inside of a bookstore

Editor in Chief, Ladette Randolph, reads at Newtonville Books

We would like to congratulate our editor-in-chief, Ladette Randolph, on the release of her novel, A Sandhills Ballad, in paperback.  To celebrate, Ladette will read from the novel on April 13th at 7 pm at Newtonville Books in Newton, MA.  She will read along with Monica McInerny, author of At Home with the Templetons. For more…

Image of Ploughshares Colm Toibin issue

Interview with Valerie Brennan, cover artist for the Colm Toibin Issue

Valerie Brennan is the artist whose painting appears on the cover of our Spring 2011 issue, guest edited by Colm Toibin.  I (the web/marketing editor here at Ploughshares) asked her a few questions about this particular painting, current inspirations, and her work in general. Ploughshares: First off, is there an answer to the question “What…