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Issue: Spring 1988 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Bonnie B. Lee. Enjoy! The Spring 1988 issue edited by Maxine Kumin is about mothers, fathers, sisters,…

So You Know It’s Me Brian Oliu Tiny Hardcore Press, June 2011 56 pages $7.00 This post was written by Kim Liao. A good piece of experimental nonfiction is hard to find: Creative nonfiction writers experiment rarely, and when they do, the result is often too tentative or too filled with clever gimmicks privileging form…

Issue: Spring 1987 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Angela Spires. Enjoy! Derek Walcott’s guest edited issue of Ploughshares definitely matches his passion for poetry and…

The Letter Killers Club Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky (Trans. Joanne Turnbull) New York Review Books Classics, December 2011 144 pages $14.00 Separating the mysteries of Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s own story from those within the stories he published is a difficult task, especially when, in the case of The Letter Killers Club, written in 1920’s Soviet Russia, he deliberately…

Issue: Spring 2005 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Alex Rieser. Enjoy! Ploughshares loves good lines. Lines that simply make you say: “yes please!” And guest…

Issue: Spring 1984 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Sarah Berry. Enjoy! In his introduction to the Spring 1984 special poetry issue of Ploughshares, guest editor…

Issue: Spring 1982 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Jenn Moland-Kovash. Enjoy! When the 1982 special poetry issue of Ploughshares arrived, I could hardly wait. But first…

Issue: Spring 1999 This is a review of a back issue of Ploughshares. The author won our “Free Ploughshares” contest that we hosted earlier this year and agreed to review his/her free issue. This post was written by Sarah Nance. Enjoy! When I first moved to Los Angeles a year ago, I found myself struggling…

The Blue Tower Tomaz Salamun (translated by Michael Biggins with the author) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 2011 96 pages $22.00 Editor’s note: P. Scott Stanfield holds a Ph.D. in English and teaches literature at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Recently, I challenged him to see how many literary references he could make in a single 500-word review….