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Free Ploughshares, Part Two: Tim O’Brien and Mark Strand

It’s time for the second round of our fabulous Ploughshares sweepstakes! This week we’ll be giving away a copy of our Winter 1995/96 issue, guest edited by Tim O’Brien and Mark Strand, and featuring works by Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Charles Simic, Joyce Carol Oates, and many more. In order to win this issue, please…

Image of a bowl full of cooked kasha

Kasha

This weekend, in the spirit of trying something new in the kitchen, I cooked up some kasha.  I will not be cooking up any more kasha. Kasha, for those of you who are like I was until very recently – that is, blissfully unaware of all manner of things about kasha, particularly those things that…

Cover of Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse

To the Lighthouse

Many writers weigh in on the effect of today’s numerous MFA programs on the quality of contemporary fiction writing. Like others, I am—helpfully—100% ambivalent. The MFA served me well in many ways. After I graduated from college I went right into a full-time job editing sewage treatment reports for the state of Indiana. After a…

Photo of a tornado and lighting strike in a small village

Chandlery

Last week, we had our first probably-twister since coming to live in beautiful Cullowhee; in the mountains, it’s hard for a tornado to get up a good whirl, and by and large our weather is so temperate we’re ashamed to complain about it.  (I also felled my first tree, dropping it almost exactly where I…

Flash of lightning against a black sky

Word List

For all of my adult life I’ve kept a list of words.  Each time that I come across an unfamiliar word in my reading, I try to dutifully look it up in the dictionary and copy down its definition.  There have been busy weeks when I’ve let it slide – months later I’ll find a…

Black and white photo of a broken window

One Day at a Time: Why I Reread “Helping”

  Robert Stone’s story, “Helping,” is told (mostly) from the point of view of Elliot. He’s a Vietnam vet and a recovering alcoholic social worker married to Grace, a lawyer who works for child protective services. Clearly these two share an occupational dedication to helping others. They also invest, gamely, in various methods of helping…

Image of a man's silhouette against a picture window

Second Person

Like many another writer doesn’t precisely work in creative writing, I’ve spent a lot of time teaching composition…so let’s just start with a shout-out to all the contingent labor teaching composition on a piecework basis, year in and decade out, summer and winter, usually for under $30,000 a year, sometimes way under. Thanks. Moving on…