Given all of the anxiety about the future of literature in an electronic age, one thing that seems unlikely—despite the fears otherwise—is that as a culture we will stop reading. Rather, we seem to be reading (and writing) more than ever. By some counts, there were over four hundred thousand books published in this country…
When I decide to go to hear Handel’s Messiah in London at the composer’s parish church, my husband sayshe’d rather see a Thai horror movie, so we plan to meet later at our favorite Moroccan lair that serves huge platters of olives and fried goat brains, but here I am sitting in the pew next to the…
That glass of wine suspended in airdecades ago—3D projection still a tactilememory, the ruby liquid shimmeringas if just poured into its goblet,the hands reaching out,all of us incredulous then believingbefore this chalice raised to science and art. And now in Japan, rising pop divacat girl Hatsune Miku—high-def,green-haired avatar—“sings”synthesized pop in huge stadiums,bloodless and breathlessfor thousands…
John C. Zacharis Award Ploughshares is pleased to present Heidy Steidlmayer with the twenty-second annual John C. Zacharis Award for her poetry collection Fowling Piece (Triquarterly Books, 2011). The $1,500 award, which is named after Emerson College’s former president, honors the best debut book by a Ploughshares writer, alternating annually between poetry and fiction. This year’s…
In the endthere is alwaysa little changein the pockets,a few suns and moonsyou couldn’t spend. Nearbythe cloudof a would-be breathdoesn’t move,reprieved but useless. This candle will change all that. Use the last bit of air for light, and heat the hand that shields the eyes and face when it getstoo close or bright. No one…
Valium, Librium, and Tylenol with codeine—that’s what Velma the head nurse at the Florida House of Representatives would dish out when you came in with your period, a hangover, a cold, a broken arm, a hangnail. She called it the Triple,as in It sounds like you need a Triple or That calls for a Triple. God,…
On a good day, surgery lasts three minutes or less. Today’s takes longer. Kathryn has an audience. They don’t touch the fish at this point—they try to handle them as little as possible—but for the girl, Kathryn makes an exception. She wets her hand in a clear plastic bucket and lifts the stunned fish from…
Of late, I have been collecting vintage radios, a distracting hobby that I am mostly ambivalent about in comparison with sincere radio enthusiasts, which explains why I only own a handful. They are scattered throughout my house. The Fisher Model 100 sits regally aged in the living room between the fireplace and my bay window…
That’s how much time they give you to bribe the hall of records for the paperwork you bribe the foreman to sign, swearing you know nothing and owe nothing—no loans, no debtsbefore you bribe a woman to sell your pots and pans, plates, plants, rugs, and record player, so you can bribe a dentist and…
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