Ploughshares Spring 2018 - Edited by Lan Samantha Chang

I have to admit, after edition after edition of rave reviews, the Spring 2018 edition let me down a little. Not that there aren't stories inside that of themselves would rate 4 or 5 stars, but as a collection, this one was a little all over the place. 

Editor Lan Samantha Chang devotes only three paragraphs to her introduction so it's hard to know what theme she was working with or what she was going for (if anything at all) in putting these particular pieces She speaks of the possibility of dimensional change in our current time and the need to write for those who do not speak, but I'm not sure that's the message I got out of this collection as a whole, or even out of the individual stories themselves. 

But here's the pieces I found particularly striking in this edition:

Fiction:
Music Night - Natalie Bakopoulos: An American professor spends her summers on an island - bringing her daughter to spend time with her on and off again lover - the girl's father. The story tells of the couple's attempts to navigate a non-traditional relationship. They are drawn together but prevented from giving themselves over to each other fully. The little girl (Aspa) was adorable and the tension in the story was a light touch but pervasive. It was really well done. 

I Happy Am - Jamel Brinkley: I loved this story of a boy from a difficult home who signs up to go on summer field trips with a nearby religious school. He's expecting an escape from his life and is drunk on the stories his friend has told him of large houses, plentiful food, and beautiful swimming pools. Kindly white people who open their homes to these underprivileged youth. The story has some odd elements and things are slightly off kilter that gives it a curious feeling. 

Hungry Ricky Daddy - Jamil Jan Kochai: Love makes young men do strange and stupid things. Like go on a hunger strike to support terrorists. Students sharing a room at college go through roommate angst and arguments which eventually leads to them all supporting their friend through his hunger strike. It's too odd to fully explain but it's well done and details the gruesome effects of going without food for weeks. 

Milk Blood Heat - Dantiel W. Moniz - Ava and Kiera are best friends and navigating the early teenage years together. Ava's parents don't approve of the friendship. The girls talk of all the heavy things 13 year old girls are obsessed with, but still trying to hang on to their imaginations and their childhood. One of them makes a very grown up decision. 

Non-Fiction
How to Become a Monster - Nyssa Chow: This devastating little story discusses the corruption of Dillon, the author's boyfriend as he joins the police force on Trinidad. We watch Dillon through the author's eyes as he stars as a fresh faced recruit and then is overcome by the brutality of his every day life. I had to remind myself several times that this was non-fiction. 

Poetry
They Came by Jill Bialosky - a touching tribute to those interned in Jewish cemeteries targeted since January 2017. 

Cynthia La'Gail by Tameka Cage Conley - A mother lamenting on her growing daughter and their estrangement. 

Why They Hate Us by Jill McDonough - a short statement on privilege and us v. them mentality

So I am One by Mary Szybist - I really like the way this one rolled off the tongue more than anything else. It really flowed.

3/5 Stars.