Ploughshares Fall 2020 by Ladette Randolph

Ploughshares Fall 2020 Reviews

• 
  Josh Ricker

  I just started reading literary journals and this one is full of hammers. It says a lot about the current literary landscape that when I look up these authors’ names, few have published outside of journals and that makes me sad. I would love to read a novel or a book of shorts by any of these writers because these short stories are well-written and beautiful.
• 
  Lea Ann

  It's longform prose time in Ploughshares land (Actually it was in the fall but if I'm not an edition behind in reading these what am I doing?
  
  This edition contained ten stories and they were all lovely. Starting with The Twins by Nicholas Delbanco a strange incestual tale of two twins who stunt their lives with their strict adherence to each other.
  
  I'd also be remiss not to mention John ELizabeth Stintzi's The Rat King Scattered. Their story of a tortured artist and his boyfriend who lean into their relationship to escape the trauma of their own lives was really moving but just a bit surreal in a really good way.
  
  There's also a story from Holiday Reinhorn in this book whos work in fiction I'm not as familiar with as her work in advocacy for Haiti, so finding that Emmanuel was a story based in Haiti was not surprising, but the strength of the work was really touching. Emmanuel is a man who holds up so many in Haiti and is killed as if by complete happenstance which makes his death all the more tragic and defeating.
  
  Lastly, Alice Hoffman introduces a reprint of an old Ray Bradbury story, A Sound of Thunder, which is a tale of essentially, the butterfly effect, which wouldn't become a real named theory until a decade after Bradbury wrote this story. But it's perfect and timely, or should I say timeless because written in the 50s it still resonates today.
  
  Chef's kiss to you Ploughshares.
• 
  Zoe

  Favorites: Emmanuel, You Just Make Me So Happy, & A Sound of Thunder.