"The poem said the imperfect is so hot in us, / and I replied yes—I’m devout and flammable"
Read Traci Brimhall's poem, "Two Truths and a Lie," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/two-truths-and-a-lie/
Our Spring 2026 issue is out now! Pick up your copy to find new work by 46 poets, just in time for National Poetry Month: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/
Ploughshares is excited to partner with The Unsung Masters Series! In this PS essay, Martin Rock (@infinite-scroll.bsky.social), poet, translator, and Co-Director of the series, considers the archive as a living site of resistance.
"...My job, to live / as low to the ground / as a person can live / and still be said to stand."
Read Gabrielle Bates's poem, "Lady Patriots," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/lady-patriots/
We are pleased to present Barbara Lock with the annual Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction for her story, "Keep You Safe," from the Summer 2025 issue of Ploughshares!
Read an interview with Barbara in our new Spring 2026 issue: pshares.org/issue-article/alice-hoff...
🌷 April showers bring May flowers…and our Spring 2026 issue, out today. Pick up your copy to find poetry and prose by Traci Brimhall, Molly Dektar, Jane Hirshfield, Shane McCrae, Jessica Roeder, Sapphire, Patricia Smith, Alpay Ulku, Karen Winn, and more: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/
"I divide my father / from being dead when / he visits in dreams."
Read Hadara Bar-Nadav's poem, "Bad Math," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/bad-math/
🌦️ COVER REVEAL! 🌦️Our Spring 2026 issue, guest-edited by Annie Finch, comes out this Wednesday, April 8th. The issue includes new work by 46 poets and three prose writers, and features Ana Seggiaro’s “La Melancolía” (2020) on the cover. Subscribe before 11:59 pm on April 8th to get your copy!
Join us for a celebration of our upcoming Spring 2026 issue at Trident Booksellers in Boston on Wednesday, April 15th, at 6 pm!
Register: https://bit.ly/4lPcfxX
Thank you so much to everyone who submitted to our 2026 Emerging Writers’ Contest! Our readers and judges look forward to reading your submissions. Winners will be announced in September.
Didn’t submit in time? Have no fear! Our regular reading period opens June 1st at noon EST.
Our Emerging Writers' Contest closes TOMORROW at 12:00pm EST! Please note that we will NOT be extending the deadline this year—tomorrow at noon is your last chance.
Submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/
"wherever I walked, from whatever I leapt, Death's footsteps / lived inside mine."
Read Erin Belieu's poem, "Inside the Columbarium of My Old Misery" in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://bit.ly/47QO7oO
“In the beginning, there was the word, and therefore words are magic...”
In this meditation on belief, the craft of fiction, and the ecstatic imagination, Alice Hoffman considers how the magic of writing mirrors St. Teresa’s descriptions of spiritual rapture.
Read more: https://bit.ly/4sqrEqU
There's only ONE WEEK LEFT of our Emerging Writers' Contest! Send us your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by March 31 at noon EST for the chance to win $2,000, publication in Ploughshares, & a conversation with a literary agency!
Submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/
"How in tragedy, we touch our own faces first."
Read Victoria Chang's poem, "Weeping Woman," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/weeping-woman/
There are only TWO WEEKS LEFT to submit to our Emerging Writers' Contest! Send us your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by March 31st at noon EST for the chance to win $2,000, publication in Ploughshares, and a conversation with a literary agency!
Submit: https://bit.ly/3ZWP0I8
"I’d communed with the dead, my dead, to make / Sense of the sunless depths."
Read Maggie Dietz's poem, "Someone Else," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/
"Rule-breaking in some circumstances is wiser than obedience."
In our second PS piece, “Losing My Maps,” Bonnie Friedman reflects on craft and risk through Kathryn Harrison’s guest-edited Fall 2009 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/ps/ps-losing-my-maps/
Ploughshares offers the best in new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Subscribe today for access to decades of archive content, our quarterly literary journal, and free submission opportunities!
The winter blues are no match for a hot drink and a cozy night in with our Winter 2025-26 issue. Grab your copy today: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/
"I took up the love charm and held it in my hands and wished that the world was different than it was."
Read Alice Hoffman's story, "My Confessor," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://bit.ly/4sBF7Ma
Come visit us at #AWPBaltimore! We'll be hosting book signings by three recent contributors at Table #T427.
Plus, don't miss our offsite event this Thursday, in collaboration with The Adroit Journal and The Kenyon Review! RSVP: https://bit.ly/3N2K81e
"So-and-so brushed / my shoulder as gunshots / cracked."
Read Mostafa Ibrahim's poem (translated by Abdelrahman ElGendy), "So-and-So," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/
We're so pleased to have published new work by three of our past guest editors in our Winter 2025-26 issue! Read their pieces and check out their guest-edited issues: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/
Will you be at #AWPBaltimore? Visit Ploughshares at Table #T427 for book signings with contributors Rasaq Malik Gbolahan and Hadara Bar-Nadav and upcoming guest editor Justin Torres! Copies of their books will be available for purchase.
"I tell my sisters not to worry. / I will garden the sadness / away."
Read Abbie Kiefer's poem, "Assistance," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/assistance/
Ready to be discovered? Submit your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to the Emerging Writers’ Contest between February 1 and March 31 for the chance to win a conversation with the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management! Learn more and submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/
"No falling: just goldenrod, blown willowy breath, and the cold bruised sky."
Read Jennifer Martelli's poem, "Fake Wool," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares, available here: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/
In our first PS post, a love letter to our archive, Kathryn Nuernberger, Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh, and Heidi Czerwiec discuss the work of Maxine Kumin, Annie Dillard, and Toi Derricotte in previous issues of Ploughshares.
Read more: https://bit.ly/4rQBUIv
XO, Ploughshares
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