Solo

In 2012, we established Ploughshares Solos, a digital-first series for longer stories and essays, edited by Ploughshares Editor-in-Chief Ladette Randolph. Solos were compiled in the Solos Omnibus until 2017, after which they were published in our yearly fall longform issue.

After a decade of publication, we ceased publishing new solos in a digital standalone format. You can still enjoy new longform prose in our fall issue. To read Solos-past, subscribe to the Ploughshares archive, starting at $20. Solos are also still available where e-books are sold for download on your Kindle, Nook, iPad, or Kobo.

Mortal Enemy

Mortal Enemy

One afternoon last week, I was sitting at my kitchen table, doing an online search for Bobby Bocelli. What came up was an entry headed: Robert A. Bocelli, 54, journalist, novelist, play and screenwriter. It sounded like an obituary. My second feeling was shame and guilt about my first feeling, which had been a flash…

The Émigré Engineer

The Émigré Engineer

Dedicated to the one who “blew the minutest kiss with the barest movement of her lips”   1 The Revolution Comes on Horses When Witold Galitzki was in his late teens, the Revolution happened in Russia. People in Witold’s Galician village agreed that it was the business of Russians, and that they could keep it….

Goodreads Warrior

Goodreads Warrior

Kurt Cobain KeepsEagle explored the Harvard Course Guide for Fall 2009. It was like finding a rip in the sky, a secret door he could plunge his head through to see spinning worlds whiz past his face, close enough to grab. For the first time in his life, he felt greedy. I want this, I…

When the Prophet Gazed Upon the Face of the Lord

When the Prophet Gazed upon the Face of the Lord

“For decades, scientists and staff at the site experimented with new kinds of nuclear reactors, advanced rocket systems, and futuristic weapons. While this research resulted in scientific advancements, it also left behind a legacy of radioactive and chemical contamination both on the property and in nearby communities according to multiple studies and investigations…Los Angeles County…

Bush v. Gore

Bush v. Gore

I had a boyfriend, sort of, a med student who spent his nights studying at the coffee shop where I worked. He always sat at the table closest to the counter, several books splayed open in a horseshoe around him, so everyone standing in line to order could see what he was working on. Most…

The Mexican Detective

The Mexican Detective

My sister’s body was found twelve days after her birthday, which was the last time I’d seen her. The silence of the interval was nothing extraordinary; we didn’t have reason to speak, and the older we got, the more reason we needed. Our family, like any other, had a certain tension built into it. Falling-outs…

The Main with Eights Pairs of Legs

The Man with Eight Pairs of Legs

Cañon City was not a city. It was a small, gossiping, high-security town in Colorado’s high desert, bordered to the west by the Sawatch Range. A home rule municipality boasting thirteen prisons and fifty churches, its ten thousand people—one fifth of them locked up—governed themselves as they saw fit and thrived on the stories, true…