Ploughshares Winter 2016-2017

When I didn't receive this edition in the mail right away, I went to the Ploughshares website and signed up for three more years in subscription because I was so afraid I had run out of my old subscription. That was silly, I still had the rest of this year left, so no at least I know I'm locked in for four more years of this fantastic publication. If you're still not reading Ploughshares, perhaps you'll be lucky enough to find my old copy at the gym, in the work breakroom, at my kids reading center, or any of the other random places I leave these after I read them for people to find. 

This staff edited edition is full of poetry and short fiction which I read with relish, but it also contains the winners of the Ploughshares Emerging Writers contest and those entries did not disappoint. So as per usual, here are a few highlights:

Poetry:
Rob Arnold - What We Did Under the Tree
Yes, you can imagine, sometimes what they did was naughty. But when it comes in verse like:
"Holding our breath, muddied and spent
while tectonics shifted
]imperceptibly under our feet, 
the late century sputtering onward"
It's all quite lovely.

Anders Carlson-Wee - Asking for Work at Flathead Bible
I loved the storytelling quality of this poem and the sense of time as fluid but ever moving. 

Stuart Dybek - Moderation
I love poems and stories that make me feel the passage of time, the lessons of growing up and growing older. This poem was one of those.
"Back then regret hadn't had time to grow. It arrived as suddenly"

Daniel Lawless - The Dean Has No Comment
A streaking girl at the zoo startles everyone it seems except the gorillas.

Jo Sarzotti - Waiting for Achilles
Are we brave in ourselves? Or are we waiting for a hero? 

Hilma Wolitzer - The Separation
Another poem about siblings. I loved it. 

Non-Fiction:
Roohi Choudhry - The Undertaker's Home
A writer living in Ireland at the historic home of a famous writer as part of a fellowship was brilliant. The narrator, of Pakistani descent, is drawn to the cliffs by the cottage and the stories they could tell on their own. His own past lingers like an extra character in the story. 

Beth Ann Fennelly - When Dusk Fell an Hour Earlier
A woman who returns to the Czech Republic after a 20 year absence. Her earlier stint, as a ESL teacher in a far flung coal town was nothing like the study abroad stories of emerging cities and carefree spending in newly independent eastern Europe. She was in a coal town where the people had lived hard and knew nothing of excess or easy friendship. When she returns, she learns that her memories are colored by her own youth and inexperience and she learns a new appreciation for what she experienced. 

Farah Peterson - Illness and Identity
This story also involved siblings, a brother and sister, and how the sister deals with her brother's mental illness. As the title suggests, it really digs into illness and how that shapes or informs identity, not only of ourselves, but how we see others who suffer from illness. Who decides the identity of a mentally ill person?

Fiction:
Tristan Hughes - Up Here
This story centered around the boyfriend of a park ranger, living mostly off the grid. At the beginning of the story, the ranger asks the boyfriend to shoot her dog, an old girl for whom even getting off the ground in the morning has become an extremely painful experience. There's a wisp of something more happening with the ranger in the background, but we don't really get to see it and the mood this lays over the story is supremely effective.

Katie Knoll - IED
I love sibling stories. I'm currently listening to Cutting for Stone, which is about twins in Ethiopia and so this story fell right into that vibe I'm getting from Cutting for Stone. This one is from the sister's perspective. Her brother, the "love of my life" has been injured by an IED. And the story ticks back and forth from their childhood to the present. We're not entirely certain the extent of the devastation the IED has wrought to the brother, but I got the impression it was rather severe. The feeling in this story was so convincingly solid, I was certain this story was not fiction. 

Magogodi Oampela Makhene - The Caretaker
This story really delved into guilt and responsibility. It involved a rabid dog and an injured teen and people who have nothing and a slightly more than nothing. 

Josh Weil - The Essential Constituent of Modern Living Standards
I loved this one about a group of farmers who take on the power company in order to gain electricity for their rural area. I'd never thought about the setting up of the electric grid, and how prohibitively expensive it would have been to provide power over long distances to small populations. 

Finally, I should note that all three Emerging Writer selections were fantastic.
Poetry - Leila Chatti - Confession 
As a Catholic, this view of Mary laboring, as a woman, not as a saint, was a wonderful look at a venerated person.

Nonfiction - Mimi Dixon - Breath
A daughter copes with the loss of her father, a famous oboist. The daughter works to finish her father's book while also dealing with her own medical issues. The story centered around the concept of breath and breathing, and it kept coming back to this concept in so many ways. 

Fiction - Lydia Martin - The Adjustment Act
A Cuban immigrant deals with feelings of guilt and dissatisfaction as he works to bring his sisters and stepmother to America at any cost. 

I'm so thrilled to be exposed to so many great writers with every Ploughshares edition.

4/5 Stars.

Ploughshares Summer 2016 Guest-Edited by Claire Messud & James Wood

Oh Ploughshares. I am not sure how much I can really explain how much this subscription enriches my life, but every opportunity I get, I try to mention this to other reading enthusiasts. This year is Ploughshares' 45th Anniversary year and I'm so happy for the influence it brings to short fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  You can link directly to their site here.

The Summer 2016 Edition was edited by Claire Messud and James Wood and at 155 pages, without any poetry, must be the shortest edition I've ever received. However, the editors explain in their introduction, the focus of this edition was to shown "an internationalism of voice and material, to suit a reality that is at once local and increasingly global and complex." This edition delivers on that goal perfectly. 

The second story in the collection, and an incredibly short one, Telling Stories about One's Life by Peter Bichsel explores the theme of important stories in our life sometimes not being particularly compelling - that there are moments in life that are of great importance and formative change, but ultimately don't make for good story telling. The funny thing is, as short as it is, the story is really boring - and it's about boring stories. So this is a win on a meta level.

The Ghost's Preface by Kamel Daoud is about a ghost writer who attempts to write a book the way he wants to write it, instead of the way the subject is telling it and the conflict that arises when he attempts to assert his own identity in the story. In the end, the subject dies shortly after burning the entire manuscript so neither story is told. But the ghost writer realizes that the story was never unique in the first place, that millions of copies exist out in the world and a reader could find a copy anywhere they looked. 

My favorite story in the edition has to be The Testimonie of Alyss Teeg by Carys Davies. The story is written in dialect that is at first distracting, taking concentration to fully comprehend, but somewhere mid-story - a tale told from the perspective of a younger sister about her non-gender conforming brother, and the shocking lengths the family goes to in order to "correct" his behavior - I was so startled by where the story was going, and so heartbroken for the characters, it was as if the dialect was clearing on the page and my mind rapidly consumed the words in order to get to the end. The pace quickened and my breathing altered. The story had that much of a physical effect on me and for that I absolutely adored it. 

Viet Dinh's story Lucky Dragon, about a fishing vessel that sails too close to a nuclear test site explores the transformation that overcomes the crew. It takes a plausible event and continues into a realm of imaginary consequences that I found odd but also delightful. 

Hollow Object by Amity Gaige explores the disconnect between a mother and her daughter and the lifestyles they choose to lead. When her daughter becomes sick, the mother Beth explores their relationship and the choices her daughter has made to that moment. She tries to connect with her daughter in numerous ways and is never fully capable. 

Georgi Gospodinov's Sonning a Father was a sad and beautiful tale of an orphan attempting to "Son a Father" much like someone would "Father a son" by forcing a relationship with objects. It's a sad look at the lengths someone would go to for comfort and guidance. 

Here is Where by Cate Kennedy follows Jim Carlyle as he looks back on an old friendship with friends who have gone while he himself experiences a stroke. He feels disassociated from his present time and place, an effect of the stroke, but also an effect of time.

Lastly, Hotel Majestic by Melissa Pritchard follows Ora Fitz as she visits Rome on holiday, two years after the death of a beloved husband. Ora flits between grief for her dead husband and an awakening of sensuality and desire while in Rome. It's a wonderful portrait of the notions and expectations society has of a widow and I appreciated the idea that women, at any age and stage of life, can still be passionate and sexual. 

I enjoyed so many of the stories in this edition. Another solid Ploughshares offering.

5/5 Stars.

Ploughshares - Winter 2015-2016

So after a month of reading Dune, it took me about 24 hours to completely devour my newest Ploughshares volume. So many great stories in this one, so I'll just hit some highlights.

Collectors by Joan Murray - a woman gets roped into an art selling scheme and realizes she's both been duped, and used as a prop to help dupe others. Best quote: "He was close to my age - in his late forties - which always seems older when it's someone else." 

Bajadas by Francisco Cantu - a really great look at new recruits who become border agents in the Southwest. Glimpses of banal cruelty and compassion alike.

Here I am Laughing with Boers by Laurie Baker - an American teacher working in South Africa at the end of apartheid grapples with being one step removed from cultural outrage while still benefiting from the position of privilege it affords her.

Ghost by Meng Jib - the story of an amputee who's missing limb seems to have a mind of its own. Haunting prose which is fitting given the title of the story. 

Always One More Way by Alison Wisdom - an excellent look at a soldier living with PTSD in the form of a very present dead friend.

Restitution by Jerry Whitus - a man who has been bullied his entire life takes his revenge. 

The poems I liked best in this one were Stutter by Adam Giennelli and Way Above Illinois by George Bilgere. 

I even really enjoyed the LookTwo Essay profiling Uruguayan author Felisberto Hernandez who's signature style seemed to be giving inanimate objects a point of view in his stories. While he takes some influence from Faulkner (who I really really have tried to like but don't), he definitely is a voice of his own.