translated from the Spanish by Ilan Stavans Thick, pristine beast, Saint Elephant, sacred animal of perennial forests, sheer strength, fine and balanced leather of global saddle-makers, compact, satin-finished ivory, serene like the moon’s flesh, with minuscule eyes to see—and not be seen— and a singing trunk, a blowing horn, hose of the creature rejoicing in…
In Story v. Novel, the story nearly always wins. In my opinion. I’ve written in both genres, and these days, when asked which I prefer, I say story. I like the precision of the language, the focus of the angle, the intensity placed on the moment. I like spending just that length of time, and…
The first time she could remember hearing thunder she’d been sitting on her grandma’s lap in the formal parlor of the big old house where she was visiting. She flinched and shuddered. “What’s that, Grandma?” she’d asked. “That is the voice of God,” the old woman said, and then they heard it again rolling out…
I began editing this issue of Ploughshares in the summer of 2004 shortly after my return from Chile, where I was invited, with Yusef Komunyakaa and Nathalie Handal, to participate in the celebration of the Neruda Centenary. We had entered the Republic of Poetry. Restaurants used Neruda’s odes for recipes, and proudly announced this fact…
Cohen Awards Each year, we honor the best poem and short story published in Ploughshares with the Cohen Awards, which are wholly sponsored by our longtime patrons Denise and Mel Cohen. Finalists are nominated by staff editors, and the winners—each of whom receives a cash prize of $600 —are selected by our advisory editors. The…
Mom has already made arrangements for a spot inside the churchyard wall among the old Yankee slates, some fallen, and the granites from foreign places, tilted by frost. A mason sets them straight again each spring. Perennials for the formal beds accepted with gratitude; no other plantings allowed. Cut flowers may be laid on the…
MASTHEAD Guest Editor Martin Espada Editor Don Lee Managing Editor Robert Arnold Poetry Editor David Daniel Associate Fiction Editor Maryanne O"Hara Founding Editor DeWitt Henry Founding Publisher Peter O"Malley Assistant Fiction Editor: Jay Baron Nicorvo. Editorial Assistants: Elizabeth Partfitt and Laura Wareck. Bookshelf Advisors: Fred Leebron and Cate Marvin. Proofreader: Megan Weireter. Poetry Readers: Simeon…
beth alvarado‘s story "Just Family" is from her collection, Not a Matter of Love, which won the MVP award from New Rivers Press and will be published in fall 2006. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in Calyx, Northwest Review, Spork, and Cue, a journal of prose poetry. She is a lecturer at the…
What is essential as breath reduced to a squabble about moral parity to hold a brief for the party that orders death. Moral parody: ours is but to cook, serve, clear, speak when spoken to. * We will not swell the glory chorus, slaughter calling to slaughter like lovers possessed. Nor will we turn away….
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