review

I chose a literary magazine called Ploughshares. It is published three times a year by Emerson College. It has a website: www.pshares.org. The website provides a "companion" to the print journal of the literary magazine and allows the audience to read selections from the current issue, along with some archives. The Ploughshares literary magazine is about two hundred pages and includes fiction, non-fiction short stories and poems. There is a range of authors and poets, along with their published experience, along with having a guest editor. This issue is done by Kathryn Harrison and this issue includes twenty works of art (poems and stories). Kathryn Harrison seems to be a very experienced and well published author and poet. She has been the author of five novels, written two memoirs, one travel memoir, a biography and a collection of personal essays. She has also been a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review and her essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Vogue, O Magazine, and Salon, and a few others. I must say that reading the introduction to this issue of the Ploughshares literary magazine was enough to get me hooked. I think anyone who enjoys being captivated by a short story and having it have multiple meanings would love this issue.
Kathryn writes so eloquently and really pulls the reader and audience in. Her writing is descriptive and heart felt. In this issue the stories and poems are largely about life itself. The writings are profound and allow the reader into the writer's life and experiences. I love them all. There was one that talked about a wedding that a family was getting ready to celebrate but the true story was the experience of the Father and the loss of his brother and his Father. It was a unique take on culture and war and loss, along with celebration. These stories really let you take a glimpse into another's life, the struggles, heartache, happiness, etc. I could not tell you when reading these who was a more experienced writer and that is something that I also loved about these writings. I also greatly appreciated the diversity of non-fiction, fiction and poetry that was included in this literary magazine. I think a lot of my peers would enjoy this magazine; although in my group I can tell that most of them like abstract poems and these are more I think down my alley and maybe Sam's than the rest of the group. But just reading each piece either put a smile on my face, made my heart melt or sink, put images into my head and gave me a different perspective. I think all of these elements are key in good writing and poetry. Also, the cover was nicely done and went well with the introduction and overall meaning of the issue, along with being colorful and aesthetically pleasing. I would certainly love to get another issue and continue to read this literary magazine.