Ploughshares
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The Fiction of Work
Most work is not fulfilling, and by the time we finally realize it all the friends we’d like to turn to for support have been scattered across the globe in pursuit of fulfilling work. At Ploughshares, Tim Ellison looks at…
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Growing Up in the American Dream
Ploughshares talks to Jennine Capó Crucet about her new novel, Make Your Home Among Strangers, and what it was like growing up with parents who bought into the American Dream: I mean, my parents named me Jennine after the Miss America runner…
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A List of Literary Teachers
Just in time for back-to-school season, Ploughshares has this list of some of the most memorable teachers in literature.
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The Antithesis of Context
e.v. de cleyre, writing for Ploughshares, offers a look at the art of omission from Rankine to Fitzgerald: what it means to omit something from the story, whether it be context or framework, and the implications of that omission on…
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Your Next Story
WRITER: Thank you. Thank you. Really. Because my whole problem is I’m incapable of noticing things I might want to write about. I walk through this world blind, and it’s not till helpful people shove things in my face and suggest that…
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Growing Up with Little Women
Four sisters, each vivid, but composed, really, of just a few brushstrokes. Here, neatly categorized for us before we’ve made it out of the first chapter, are four different ways of being a girl. There’s something tempting about this drawing…
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Rescuing Asian Art from American Artists
Generations of American writers have approached Asian cultures with the best of intentions but repeatedly missed the mark. How can we rescue Asian artists and thinkers like Hokusai from our own desire to experience them as foreign? How can we…
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The Literary Zombie Dream Team
At Ploughshares, Matthew Burnside assembles a literary dream team for the impending zombie apocalypse.
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Poetry Shark
I like to joke that I’m like a shark—my writing has to keep moving or it will die. Ploughshares interviews Jehanne Dubrow about her latest poetry collection, The Arranged Marriage, and her shark-like writing process.
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The Way You Write
Using the second person is a tricky but effective writing device, though its use is pretty uncommon. Over at the Ploughshares blog, E.V. De Cleyre offers some clever examples of writing in the second person.
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Murder by Numbers
Over at the Ploughshares blog, Rebecca Makkai puts together a series of graphs depicting ironically depressing stats about books and writers.
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Nine Indian Women Poets
The venom of an evil actually engages us: it brings together those who feel invariably shunned by an unjust and misogynistic world. For the Ploughshares blog, John Rufo discusses the importance of Eunice De Souza’s anthology, Nine Indian Women Poets.