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Ploughshares Winter 2015-2016 / Volume 41, No. 4
The Winter 2015-16 issue of Ploughshares. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Two out of each year's three issues are guest-edited by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles, with the Winter issue staff-edited.
The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, Here I Am, Laughing with Boers; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem Way Above Illinois; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, Bajadas. The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost.
Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner.
This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
The stories, poems, and essays that comprise this staff-edited issue of Ploughshares are diverse and timely. Visit a South African laundromat in Laurie Baker’s short story, Here I Am, Laughing with Boers; fly over the American midwest in George Bilgere’s poem Way Above Illinois; and read about life as a border patrol agent in New Mexico in Francisco Cantú’s essay, Bajadas. The pieces jump from Manhattan to China to Idaho, but the common thread of humanity is never lost.
Read new prose from Meng Jin, Ryan Ruff Smith, and Joan Murray, and poetry from Matthew Lippman, Natalie Shapero, and more. The winners of our Emerging Writer’s Contest appear here, along with the announcement of our Zacharis Award winner.
This issue is dedicated to William H. Berman (1936-2015), an advisory board member and Emerson College overseer.
- GenresFiction
292 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 21, 2016
2 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Marc Vincenz
48 books19 followersMarc Vincenz was born in Hong Kong to Swiss-British parents during the height of the Cultural Revolution. He divides his time between Reykjavik, Zurich and Boston where he works as a journalist, poet, writer, translator, editor and book designer. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Washington Square Review, Fourteen Hills, Canary, Manhattan Review, Plume, Saint Petersburg Review, Crab Creek Review, The Bitter Oleander, Exquisite Corpse, Guernica, The Potomac, Spillway Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, MiPOesias and Inertia. Recent books include: The Propaganda Factory, or Speaking of Trees; Pull of the Gravitons; Gods of a Ransacked Century; Mao’s Mole; Behind the Wall at the Sugar Works; Additional Breathing Exercises; Beautiful Rush and the forthcoming This Wasted Land (with Tom Bradley). His recent translations include, Kissing Nests by Werner Lutz , Nightshift / An Area of Shadows by Erika Burkart and Ernst Halter, Out of the Dust by Klaus Merz and Grass Grows Inward by Andreas Neeser
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 14, 2016
So after a month of reading Dune, it took me about 24 hours to completely devour my newest Ploughshares volume. So many great stories in this one, so I'll just hit some highlights.
Collectors by Joan Murray - a woman gets roped into an art selling scheme and realizes she's both been duped, and used as a prop to help dupe others. Best quote: "He was close to my age - in his late forties - which always seems older when it's someone else."
Bajadas by Francisco Cantu - a really great look at new recruits who become border agents in the Southwest. Glimpses of banal cruelty and compassion alike.
Here I am Laughing with Boers by Laurie Baker - an American teacher working in South Africa at the end of apartheid grapples with being one step removed from cultural outrage while still benefiting from the position of privilege it affords her.
Ghost by Meng Jib - the story of an amputee who's missing limb seems to have a mind of its own. Haunting prose which is fitting given the title of the story.
Always One More Way by Alison Wisdom - an excellent look at a soldier living with PTSD in the form of a very present dead friend.
Restitution by Jerry Whitus - a man who has been bullied his entire life takes his revenge.
The poems I liked best in this one were Stutter by Adam Giennelli and Way Above Illinois by George Bilgere.
I even really enjoyed the LookTwo Essay profiling Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernandez who's signature style seemed to be giving inanimate objects a point of view in his stories. While he takes some influence from Faulkner (who I really really have tried to like but don't), he definitely is a voice of his own.
Collectors by Joan Murray - a woman gets roped into an art selling scheme and realizes she's both been duped, and used as a prop to help dupe others. Best quote: "He was close to my age - in his late forties - which always seems older when it's someone else."
Bajadas by Francisco Cantu - a really great look at new recruits who become border agents in the Southwest. Glimpses of banal cruelty and compassion alike.
Here I am Laughing with Boers by Laurie Baker - an American teacher working in South Africa at the end of apartheid grapples with being one step removed from cultural outrage while still benefiting from the position of privilege it affords her.
Ghost by Meng Jib - the story of an amputee who's missing limb seems to have a mind of its own. Haunting prose which is fitting given the title of the story.
Always One More Way by Alison Wisdom - an excellent look at a soldier living with PTSD in the form of a very present dead friend.
Restitution by Jerry Whitus - a man who has been bullied his entire life takes his revenge.
The poems I liked best in this one were Stutter by Adam Giennelli and Way Above Illinois by George Bilgere.
I even really enjoyed the LookTwo Essay profiling Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernandez who's signature style seemed to be giving inanimate objects a point of view in his stories. While he takes some influence from Faulkner (who I really really have tried to like but don't), he definitely is a voice of his own.
Read
June 13, 2016I may have received the next issue of Ploughshares before finishing this one. Whoops...
Some notable favorites from this issue:
Helicopters and Gypsy Moths
Probably my favorite of the bunch—I read it almost two weeks ago now, and it's stuck with me. A girl who's forced to spend a summer with her uncle in a science lab, which is completely boring at first (moths? He studies moths?). But there's more to learn than simply the mating ritual of moths.
Homeplace
Winner of the emerging writer's contest in nonfiction, and rightfully so. A small town built solely for war efforts, which was ideally sprawling comfort but was, in truth, a mudpit due to speedy construction. And the emotional impact of growing up in such a place. And being tied to the town despite their best efforts. My favorite line:
Bam. That's the stuff.
Some poetry, which is impossible to review but worth noting: (aka check out these authors later)
Blue Dye – Liam Hysjulien
Lacrimae rerum – Christopher Kempf
Untitled – Cat Richardson*
*Despite the concept of "untitled" being pretentious, in that "this is too much to properly name it" kind of way. (Says my 15-year-old self with a poem of the same "name.")
Some notable favorites from this issue:
Helicopters and Gypsy Moths
Probably my favorite of the bunch—I read it almost two weeks ago now, and it's stuck with me. A girl who's forced to spend a summer with her uncle in a science lab, which is completely boring at first (moths? He studies moths?). But there's more to learn than simply the mating ritual of moths.
Homeplace
Winner of the emerging writer's contest in nonfiction, and rightfully so. A small town built solely for war efforts, which was ideally sprawling comfort but was, in truth, a mudpit due to speedy construction. And the emotional impact of growing up in such a place. And being tied to the town despite their best efforts. My favorite line:
Women tramped to dances in evening gowns and knee-length rubber boots and carried clean shoes to Knoxville so they wouldn't be identified as residents of that government town.
Bam. That's the stuff.
Some poetry, which is impossible to review but worth noting: (aka check out these authors later)
Blue Dye – Liam Hysjulien
Lacrimae rerum – Christopher Kempf
Untitled – Cat Richardson*
*Despite the concept of "untitled" being pretentious, in that "this is too much to properly name it" kind of way. (Says my 15-year-old self with a poem of the same "name.")
May 12, 2016
Yet another fine staff-edited issue. Stunning.
The poetry was terse, clear, varied and arresting overall. Especially taken by Kien Lam (Anagram At A Pool Hall), JT Ledbetter (Tomorrow Will Be Fine), William Logan (Iowa, Redux), Jacques Rancourt (Wild Through The Sea), Julie Sheehan (Pilot Whale), and Monica Wendel (Mermaid Parade).
All the emerging writers - Emily Strasser, Lucy Tan and Emily Jungmin Yoon - are remarkable.
Loved Lisa Fetchko's Look2 essay on Felisberto Hernandez.
And the fiction is carefully chosen. I don't have time to elaborate right now, but Laurie Baker's "Here I Am, Laughing With Boers," Meng Jin's "Ghost," Jerry Whitus' "Restitution," and Lisa Julin Sharon's "Imagining Roses" are finely wrought, strong stories. Actually, I applaud the entire array of new fiction - Piyali Bhattacharya, Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis, Joan Murray, Ryan Ruff Smith and Alison Wisdom included.
This is just such a fine quarterly. Long may it live.
The poetry was terse, clear, varied and arresting overall. Especially taken by Kien Lam (Anagram At A Pool Hall), JT Ledbetter (Tomorrow Will Be Fine), William Logan (Iowa, Redux), Jacques Rancourt (Wild Through The Sea), Julie Sheehan (Pilot Whale), and Monica Wendel (Mermaid Parade).
All the emerging writers - Emily Strasser, Lucy Tan and Emily Jungmin Yoon - are remarkable.
Loved Lisa Fetchko's Look2 essay on Felisberto Hernandez.
And the fiction is carefully chosen. I don't have time to elaborate right now, but Laurie Baker's "Here I Am, Laughing With Boers," Meng Jin's "Ghost," Jerry Whitus' "Restitution," and Lisa Julin Sharon's "Imagining Roses" are finely wrought, strong stories. Actually, I applaud the entire array of new fiction - Piyali Bhattacharya, Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis, Joan Murray, Ryan Ruff Smith and Alison Wisdom included.
This is just such a fine quarterly. Long may it live.
May 25, 2016
I loved the language and imagery in the story "Ghost" by Meng Jin.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews