One of the best parts about the Winter Ploughshares edition is that it includes the emerging writers contest winners. The stories always feel fresh and vibrant. (Even though I'm an edition behind in reading). So in no particular order, here are some of my favorite stories and poems from this edition:Poetry:
Contender - Traci Brimhall
"It's alright to overdress for the riot. Your rage is stunning." And that's just the opening line. This poem. Guys its urgent and truth and just great.
Losing - Kerrin McCadden
A poem for a lost brother. There's a longing here that is felt acutely even though this poem is short.
Fiction:
Once a River - Daryl Farmer
In this story a journalist struggles with his privilege in reporting conditions in a refugee camp while having access to the dictator whose cruelty is well known. "Evil relies on a belief of its own inevitability, that it is a force that cannot ever be eradicated." Thinks the journalist as he rides in a helicopter with the dictator back to the refugee camp for nothing that can be good. Amid such evil what can one person do?
The Age of Migration - Kai Maristed
Charley and Karim move to France and Karim undergoes a radicalization. Charley gets entangled with another man who wants to take her away to America. She has choices, but does she? Charley is caught between obligations and understandings. She may or may not be free. It's a very nuanced, well written story.
Noise - Katherine Sharpe
I really liked this story about an aging rock star and a young journalist who has come to interview her. They've shared a lover and Luce thinks of the absurdity of this while also dealing with some teenage rebellion from her daughter.
An Older Woman - Diana Spechler
I also liked this story of a man hiding from his pain in a casual relationship with an older woman. The story starts out and you think it's about the woman but it's really about the man.
Emerging Writers
And not to be missed are the emerging writers winners:
Nonfiction - Pojangmacha People - Jung Hae Chae
A fluid retelling of generations of family trauma caused by alcoholism and enabling.
Poetry - a psalm in which i demand a new name for my kindred - Aurielle Marie
A love poem to friends and friendships. Full of inside jokes that read more like clues than snubs to a reader outside the circle.
Fiction - Creation - Ruby Todd
A sculpture artists finds inspiration in a dress bought on a whim for a party she didn't want to go to. I loved the artist's surprise at her own talent.
4/5 Stars.
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