Ploughshares – Spring 2005

This issue of the venerable, well-respected Ploughshares was guest-edited by poet and essayist Martín Espada, and many of the poems and prose he picked for the issue pack incisor-sharp observations and an emotional wallop. The table of contents boasts so many poetry luminaries I can’t list them all, but here’s a partial list: Adrienne Rich, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Creeley, Gary Soto and Sharon Olds.  This issue of the venerable, well-respected Ploughshares was guest-edited by poet and essayist Martín Espada, and many of the poems and prose he picked for the issue pack incisor-sharp observations and an emotional wallop. The table of contents boasts so many poetry luminaries I can’t list them all, but here’s a partial list: Adrienne Rich, Yusef Komunyakaa, Robert Creeley, Gary Soto and Sharon Olds. Standout pieces include Melissa Bank’s (wunderkind author of Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing) short fiction piece, “Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Away,” about a sister who watches helplessly while her brother becomes obsessed with a woman who’s described as “trouble,” Nan Cohen’s poems about Abraham and Isaac, and Alison Hagy’s story, “Border,” which begins with an irresistible opening line: “It was not as hard to steal the collie pup as he thought it would be.” Definitely an issue I could read over and over again, finding new things to love each time; it’s well worth its hefty price tag for its 200-plus pages of inspired fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. [Ploughshares, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116-4624. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $10.95. www.pshares.org/index.cfm] – Jeannine Hall Gailey