Latest Issue

  • Fall 2025

    The Fall 2025 issue features longform prose by Devon Walker-Figueroa, Geetanjali Shree (translated by Daisy Rockwell), and more. Cover art by Barbara Kassel.

Blog

  • White Like Me

    Writing for me had always been a release. But every time I tried to write about my experiences as a Black man, the same thing…

  • The Parasitism of Memory in Burnt Sugar

    Avni Doshi’s Booker shortlisted 2019 novel wonders if, since our minds can distort our memories into unrecognizable things and still have us believe them as…

  • Decoding the Silences in Corregidora

    Gayl Jones’s 1975 book positions language as an apparatus of control and power, a weapon used to continue cycles of oppression. It contends that silence—both…

  • Betrayal in Rainbow Rainbow

    In their debut short story collection, Lydia Conklin examines what it’s like to inhabit a body and/or sexuality that is inherently uncomfortable—not because of one’s…

  • Language and Trauma in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

    Little Dog, the narrator of Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, learns to be strategic in his use of language as a means of self-preservation.

Announcing Fiction Editor Paul Harding

Of Harding, Editor-in-chief Jenny Molberg writes: “To inhabit the world of Paul Harding’s novels is to encounter the depths of his kindness, curiosity, intellect, and empathy. A Pulitzer Prize–winning author and recipient of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, among many other accolades, Paul brings a sharp eye for innovative fiction to our editorial team at Ploughshares.”

A letter from Editor-in-chief Jenny Molberg

“For decades, Ploughshares has been a journal I’ve admired for its deep care, its editorial rigor, and its unwavering insistence that literature matters. That belief is at the core of my work as an editor, poet, and teacher.”

Announcing Hanif Abdurraqib as our first-ever Nonfiction Editor

Editor-in-chief Jenny Molberg writes: “I have long admired Hanif Abdurraqib’s work, which is at once formidable and tenderhearted, challenging and compelling.”

Teal background with white text inside a white border: "Another attempt at a truce. But weren't they beyond truces now?" Lydia Martín, "El Breakwater"

From the Archives:
Lydia Martín

Read Lydia Martín’s piece, “El Breakwater,” from the Summer 2018 issue of Ploughshares.

Gray background with dark blue text inside a dark blue border: "Was she still alive? Was she still struggling, or had she given up? What even was giving up?" Jac Jemc "The Drift"

Free Content: Jac Jemc

Read Jac Jemc’s piece, “The Drift,” from the Summer 2025 issue of Ploughshares.

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We Need Readers Like You

Donate to support our commitment to paying writers now and in perpetuity.

Black and white headshot of Alice Hoffman

Guest Editor Spotlight: Alice Hoffman

Read poetry and prose edited by Alice Hoffman, the Guest Editor of the Fall 2003, Winter 2011-12, and Spring 2023 issues of Ploughshares.

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