Ploughshares Fall 2018 - Edited by Ladette Randolph

Somewhere in the middle of the second story of this Edition, I thought, "man these are really long stories this time around." Flipping to the front - "Longform Essays and Stories." Yes folks, I am super observant sometime.

Though long, I thought the Fall 2018 Edition of Ploughshares was a strong entry.

The edition kicks off with The Blue River Hotel by Stephen Henighan of a Canadian-Guatemalan man who spends time in Guatemala teaching students about the country and living sort of a split life between who he is in Guatemala and who he is back home with a completely uninterested and un-invested fiance. This starts to all slip when he meets a young enthusiastic grad student. I really liked the portrayal of living two lives in two completely separate places.

Endlings by Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum follows Dr. Katya Vidovic, a physician treating women (girls) with eating disorders at an inpatient treatment facility. The back and forth from Katya's past in war torn Zagreb. Unlike the main character in The Blue River Hotel, Katya does not go back and seems to have written off that part of her life entirely.

Up next was the devastating A Death in the Family by Billy O'Callaghan told through the eyes of a young girl as her family watches her older brother slowly die. This was a heart ripper.

I also enjoyed Andrew Bienen's Fort Wilderness about a Disney themed breakup. This George guy cannot get his affairs in order and commit already. 

The Man on the Beach by Josie Sigler Sibara imagines what would happen if a young boy encounters Hitler on the beach in Argentina. I really liked the contrast set up by Sibara between what a young boy sees and what he understands as an older man. 

Lastly for fiction, I enjoyed Positive Comments by Owen King. Two dysfunctional siblings perform one kind act together. 

For non-fiction, I also really enjoyed Allen Gee's tribute to James Alan McPherson in Old School . I've never read any of McPherson's work, but that didn't matter. Gee's rendering of McPherson is so full that I felt comfortable with the characters. I've added some of McPherson's work to my TBR pile.

In a world where Jamal Khashoggi was intentionally targeted and killed by a ruling Prince, the translations of Georgi Markov, Prostitution and Wastewater are timely. Markov was also assassinated by his government for his own criticism of the communist regime in Bulgaria. It makes you wonder how much if any things have changed.

4/5 Stars.