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Wild Coast: Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge John Gimlette Alfred A. Knopf, June 2011 368 Pages $28.95 This post was written by Luke Epplin. In 2008, British travel writer John Gimlette trekked for months through the countries along South America’s northeastern rim, together known as the Guianas. Wild Coast, the resulting account of his…

Paper Darts founders Jamie Millard, Regan Smith, and Meghan Suszynski are “taking back the lit scene, one lame pen and quill metaphor at a time.” Since 2009 Paper Darts has produced a reliably gorgeous magazine, and the organization recently expanded to include a press, which will soon publish its first title, John Jodzio’s Get In…

  One of the stories I would include in my anthology would certainly be Kevin Wilson’s “Blowing Up on the Spot,” which appeared in the Ploughshares Winter 2003-2004 issue. In considering writing about the story, however, I realized that instead of me talking about Kevin Wilson, it would be much more interesting for the world…

The Other Walk Sven Birkerts Graywolf Press, 2011 192 pages $15.00 “This morning, going against all convention, I turned right instead of left…” This collection traveled around with me for weeks, bumping along in my bag everywhere I went. I could have read it faster; would have, if I hadn’t kept re-reading bits over and…

Free Ploughshares, round…well, I lost count, but once again it’s your opportunity to win a free issue from our archives! This week we’re featuring our Spring 1991 issue, guest edited by M. L. Rosenthal and examining the idea of “works-in-progress.”   Because of this issue’s theme, we’re doing things a little differently this week. In…

Tonga Books, a Europa Editions imprint, was founded in 2010. Titles published under Tonga are selected by prominent contemporary writers, and the first titles were chosen by Alice Sebold, best-selling author of The Lovely Bones, Lucky, and The Almost Moon. Tonga’s inaugural titles, Alexander Maksik’s You Deserve Nothing and Ian Holding’s Of Beasts and Beings, are…

The Sisters Brothers Patrick DeWitt Ecco, April 2011 336 pages $24.99 This post was written by Lisa Peet. If the Western exists to glorify the outsider, then it should be noted that Eli Sisters, narrator of Patrick DeWitt’s terrific The Sisters Brothers, is an outsider several times over. He and his brother Charlie are already…

Sometimes I daydream about putting together an anthology of my favorite short stories, kind of like a mix tape. Over the course of my blogging duties, I’m going to discuss a few of the stories that—from my experience—aren’t as familiar to readers. Whether it’s writing issues or life issues, I have given “Dinosaur” to more…

Radial Symmetry Katherine Larson Yale University Press, March 2011. 96 pages $18.00 This post was written by Tory Adkisson. In her recent collection of poems, Radial Symmetry, Yale Younger Series-winner Katherine Larson examines our culture’s increasingly stark division between scientist and artist, and ultimately makes a strong case for reassessing it. A research scientist herself, Larson…