Ploughshares Spring 2005 Guest-Edited by Martin Espada by Karen E. Bender

The Spring 2005 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Martin Espada. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

Guest-edited by noted poet Martin Espada, the Spring 2005 issue of Ploughshares contains prose and poetry by acclaimed authors including Karen Bender, Donald Hall, Yusef Komunyakaa, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, and Adrienne Rich. In his Introduction to the issue, Espada discusses the notion that poetry is dead in America: "Yet we are also a republic of poets, and a nation of storytellers…There are more good poems and stories being produced, and consumed — nay, devoured — in this country than ever before. If this is a funeral, then it's a jazz funeral."

Full Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
Martin Espada

EDITOR PROFILE
Cesar A. Salgado

FICTION

"Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Away," by Melissa Bank
"Mother," by Quang Bao
"Refund," by Karen E. Bender
"Border," Alyson Hagy
"The Great Cheese," by Luke Salisbury
"Sleepwalk," by Valerie Sayers

NONFICTION

"Don't Rub Your Eyes," by Doug Anderson
"Instead Of," by Ira Wood

POETRY

Jack Agueros
Nin Andrews
Naomi Ayala
Daniel Berrigan
Richard Blanco
Michelle Boisseau
Kevin Bowen
Rafael Campo
Cyrus Cassells
Nan Cohen
Robert Cording
Robert Creeley
Theordore Deppe
Richard Garcia
Stephen Gibson
Aracelis Girmay
Eugene Gloria
Donald Hall
Sam Hamill
Nathalie Handal
Myronn Hardy
David Hernandez
Bob Hicok
Al Hudgins
Colette Inez
Yusef Komunyakaa
Melissa Kwasny
Adrian C. Louis
Joshua McKinney
David Mura
John Murillo
Joan Murray
Pablo Neruda
D. Nurkse
Sharon Olds
Ishle Yi Park
Marge Piercy
Dannye Romine Powell
Leroy Quintana
Adrienne Rich
Eric Paul Shaffer
R. T. Smith
Gary Soto
Gerald Stern
Lidia Torres
Lewis Turco
Chase Twichell
David Williams

EDITORS' SHELF