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Where Beautiful Ladies Dance for You

Recommendation: I’m proud to nominate Patrick Michael Finn, one of my most accomplished, prolific former students and one of my favorite writers. Mr. Finn remains someone I talk about quite often, though he graduated in 1997, and someone whose stories have never left my mind. I still remember his characters—lonely Joliet teenagers struggling with religion and…

from Factories

When I first read the announcement for the Ploughshares Emerging Writers Issue I immediately thought of Ted Mathys, a poet whose talent reminds one of Hart Crane, and not just because Ted is also from Ohio and now lives in New York, but because of the preternatural facility for language they share as well as…

More Awards

Our congratulations to the following writers, whose work has been selected for these anthologies: Best Stories—ZZ Packer’s "Every Tongue Shall Confess" and Sharon Pomerantz’s "Ghost Knife," both from the Fall 2002 issue edited by Margot Livesey, will be included in The Best American Short Stories 2003. The anthology is due out this October from Houghton…

Pikadon

Recommendation: Jill McDonough’s poems are lyrical founts of energy and insight and humor and empathy. She’s a daring poet, formally sophisticated yet pushing the boundaries of form at every turn. In the four or five years I’ve known her poems, their subjects have dazzled me: a bumptious American girl teaching in Japan and loving the…

Staff Departure

We’re sad to announce that Susan Conley has moved to Maine and will no longer be serving as our Associate Poetry Editor. She had worked for Ploughshares in various capacities since 1996. We thank her for her dedicated service, and we wish her the best.

Childhood

Recommendation: Alexai grew up and still lives in a Chicago neighborhood known as Pilsen/Little Village. It’s the largest barrio east of L.A. The neighborhood is the locus of Mexican culture in the Midwest. It is plagued by the usual economic problems that plague most immigrations, and in particular by street gangs. What attracts me to…

Contributors’ Notes

MASTHEAD Guest Editor Alice Hoffman Editor Don Lee Managing Editor Gregg Rosenblum 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 Assistant: Olivia Kate Cerrone. Proofreader: Megan Weireter. Bookshelf Advisor: Fred Leebron. Fiction Readers: Maureen Cidzik, Kathleen Rooney, Megan Weireter,…