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For Those About To Write (We Salute You) #1: Pencil On Paper

For Those About To Write (We Salute You) will present a writing exercise to the Ploughshares community every few weeks. We heartily encourage everyone reading to take part!  I have a bookmark list on my browser that seems to scroll on forever. It consists almost entirely of creative writing tips and tricks culled from the…

photograph of a road in a rural landscape--there is a large, snowcapped mountain on the horizon

Ploughshares Playlists: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Moving

  In our new regular series, we’ll recommend the ideal music to accompany some of our favorite books. If you have Spotify, make sure it’s open and you can listen along below; otherwise, buy the songs, find a comfy chair, and get reading! —Andrew Ladd, blog editor. Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found…

photo of an abstract 3D art piece that is constructed of books and wire sculptures of bugs

Why I’d Rather Read Dystopias than Dysfunctional Family Dramas

Go into your local, independent bookstore (no, really), and you’ll easily be able to tell the difference between literary and science fiction — often it will be delineated for you, with sections of the store dedicated to each. Just as often, the difference will be found on the cover. Yet despite the strawman of genre,…

photo of a bookstore interior, with a wall lined with bookshelves

Literary Boroughs #52: Toronto, Ontario

The Literary Boroughs series will explore little-known and well-known literary communities across the country and world and show that while literary culture can exist online without regard to geographic location, it also continues to thrive locally. Posts are by no means exhaustive and we encourage our readers to contribute in the comment section. The series will run on our blog…

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Introducing… The New Ploughshares Blog!

The Ploughshares blog has changed a lot since we first launched it in 2009. Back then, it was mostly a supplement to the magazine—a clearinghouse for announcements, extra contributors’ notes, and all the other little tidbits that wouldn’t fit elsewhere. Over the years we added more original material, too, inviting our print contributors to sign…