Ploughshares

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Ploughshares

Spring 1988 issue
Discipline	Literary magazine
Language	English
Edited by	Jenny Molberg
Publication details
History	1971 (1971)–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Standard abbreviations ISO 4 (alt) · Bluebook (alt) NLM (alt) · MathSciNet (alt )
ISO 4	Ploughshares
Indexing CODEN (alt · alt2) · JSTOR (alt) · LCCN (alt) MIAR · NLM (alt) · Scopus · W&L
ISSN	0048-4474 (print) 2162-0903 (web)
JSTOR	00484474
Links
Journal homepage

Ploughshares is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College in Boston.^[1] Ploughshares publishes issues four times a year, two of which are guest-edited by a prominent writer who explores personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles. Guest editors have been the recipients of Nobel and Pulitzer prizes, National Book Awards, MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, and numerous other honors.^[2] Ploughshares also publishes longform stories and essays, known as Ploughshares Solos (collected in the journal's fall issue and published separately as e-books), all of which are edited by the editor-in-chief, Ladette Randolph,^[3] and a literary blog, launched in 2009, which publishes critical and personal essays, interviews, and book reviews.^[4]

In 1970 DeWitt Henry, a Harvard Ph.D. student, and Peter O'Malley, an Irish expatriate, decided to create a literary journal to fill a void they felt existed in the literary scene in Boston. Upon realizing that they and their supporters would never be able to agree on a specific editorial outlook for the magazine, the co-founders decided that the position of editor would be a rotating one. As a result, a majority of Ploughshares issues have been edited by various members of the community, giving the journal a unique and constantly changing voice.

The first issue was published in September 1971.^[1]

The magazine soon became recognized as a home for talented new writers.^[5] Some of the writers whose first or early works have appeared in Ploughshares are: Russell Banks, Ethan Canin, Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, John Irving, Thomas Lux, Sue Miller, Tim O'Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, Robert Pinsky, and Mona Simpson.^[6]

In later years it has gone on to publish some of the leading voices in contemporary literature, including Stephen King, Toni Morrison, Sharon Olds, Louise Gluck, Haruki Murakami, Annie Proulx, Alice Munro, Joy Williams, Mark Strand, Jennifer Egan, and Lydia Davis.

In 1988, Ploughshares became affiliated with Emerson College. Author Don Lee subsequently became Editor-in-Chief, a role he held until 2007. Nine years after becoming affiliated with Emerson, Ploughshares received the first of three large grants from the Wallace–Reader's Digest Funds. Thereafter came rapid growth, state-of-the-art computers, a new design, and aggressive marketing campaigns.

In 2008, Ladette Randolph became Editor-in-Chief. The quality of the magazine's content remains the same, though its appearance has changed to reflect its firm place in today's literary world after launching the blog in 2009, Ploughshares launched its Solos series in 2012; the first.^[7]

Ploughshares Solos Omnibus, collecting the first nine Solos in a print volume, was published in 2013. Also that year, all back issues of Ploughshares were made available in digital formats. In 2018, Ploughshares made available its robust archives via an online archive subscription, and converted the Ploughshares Solos Omnibus into a fall issue.^[8]

Ploughshares publishes issues on a quarterly basis. The Fall Longform and Winter issues are staff-edited and publish a mix of poetry and prose. The other two issues are guest-edited by prominent members of the literary community; Spring serves as a poetry issue while Summer serves as a prose issue.^[9]

In 2012, Ploughshares launched the first series of digital-first long stories and essays. The first Solos Omnibus collected the first nine Solos in print volume and was published in 2013. In 2018, the Solos series was reimagined as the Fall Longform issue which publishes poetry and prose up to 15,000 words.^[12]

In 2009, Ploughshares began publishing personal and critical essays, book reviews, and interviews on their website’s blog–updated almost daily. The blog went on hiatus in 2023, and was relaunched in 2026 as PS: an online series that published new essays, interviews, and other work in conversation with the previous authors and content in Ploughshares’ archive. The series owes a debt of gratitude to the Look2 series, which celebrated the work of under-appreciated or overlooked writers. To further this mission, Ploughshares proudly partners with the Unsung Masters series.^{[4] [10]}

Ploughshares has also published nonfiction, fiction, and poetry books.^[11]

Past guest editors of Ploughshares in alphabetical order.^[2]

For a list of past winners, see Cohen Awards. Between 1986 and 2010, Ploughshares honored the best short story and poem published in the journal via the Cohen Awards, wholly sponsored by the journal's longtime patrons Denise and Mel Cohen. Finalists were nominated by staff editors, and the winners, each of whom received a cash prize of $600, were selected by Ploughshares' advisory editors. This award is not open for the submission of manuscripts, and has been replaced since 2011 by the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction.^[15]

Inaugurated in 2011, the annual Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction honors a short story published in Ploughshares in the previous year (the Spring issue of the previous calendar year through the Winter issue of the current calendar year). The Prize is sponsored by member of the Ploughshares advisory board and longtime patron Alice Hoffman. The winner is selected by Ploughshares editors and receives a cash prize of $2,500. The announcement of the award, along with a short profile of the author, is printed in each year's Spring issue.^[16]

Previous Winners

Forthcoming in 2019, the annual Ashley Leigh Bourne Prize for Fiction honors a short story published in Ploughshares in the previous year (the Summer issue of the previous calendar year through the Spring issue of the current calendar year). The prize is sponsored by longtime patron Hunter C. Bourne III. The winner is selected by Ploughshares editors and receives a cash prize of $2,500. The announcement of the award, along with a short profile of the author, is printed in each year's Summer issue. This award is not open for the submission of manuscripts.^[17]

Previous Winners

Since 1991, the John C. Zacharis First Book Award has honored the best first book published by an author who has already published work in Ploughshares. The $1,500 award, which is named after Emerson College's former president, is judged by Ploughshares editors. The announcement of the award, along with a short profile of the author, is printed in each year's Winter issue.^[18]

Previous winners

Since 2007, John Skoyles served as Ploughshares’ Poetry Editor until February 2025, when he took over as Interim Editor-in-chief before retiring later that year. During his tenure at the journal, Skoyles championed the work of emerging poets, celebrating enigmatic poetry that possessed, as he put it in his Editor’s Note for the Winter 2024-25 issue, “clarity and surprise.” Skoyles edited with great care and empathy, and continues his prolific career as a poet and writer. To celebrate his important legacy at the journal, Ploughshares will award this prize to one poet each year.

In the spirit of the journal's founding mission, the Ploughshares Emerging Writers' Contest recognizes work by an emerging writer in each of three genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. One winner in each genre per year receives $2,000, publication in the literary journal, and a conversation with a literary agent. Ploughshares consider authors “emerging” if they haven't published or self-published a book.

Over the years, Ploughshares has helped launch the careers of great writers like Edward P. Jones, Sue Miller, Mona Simpson, Tim O'Brien, and many more.

Many of past contributors to Ploughshares have received significant accolades. Since the journal's founding in 1971, stories, poems, and essays from Ploughshares have appeared over 150 times in the following award series anthologies: The Best American Poetry, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. Ploughshares has had more selections in The Best American Short Stories than any other literary journal in the past ten years. In the past several years, it has had more stories published in The Pushcart Prize anthology than any other publication, and the journal continues to be considered one of the most prestigious in the country.

This section may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please help improve it by removing such content and adding citations to reliable, independent sources. (September 2026)

• In Danzy Senna’s novel Colored Television, the character Jane has published a piece in Ploughshares.
• Weike Wang’s novel Chemistry began as the short story “Conversations with My Father” published in the Summer 2016 issue.
• Joan Silber’s novel Mercy began as the short story under the same title published in the Winter 2024-2025 issue.
• In honor of Ploughshares’ 50th anniversary, Symphony Space presented an event on November 09, 2021 hosted by Claire Messud and James Wood with performances by Joanna Gleason, Nathan Hinton, Peter Mark Kendall, and Karen Pittman. Along with virtual introductions by Aimee Bender and Jamel Brinkley. Jane Curtin served as the guest host for the radio and podcast broadcast for this event’s episode.
• One of the protagonists in Stephen King's novel Under the Dome is said to have recently guest-edited an issue of Ploughshares.^[19]

• Ploughshares Guest Editors

• Schwartz, Lloyd (January 19, 1982). "'Ploughshares': Breaking new ground in literary magazines". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved July 7, 2024.

• Official website
• Ploughshares' namesake celebrates its 40th anniversary
• Ladette Randolph's website
• DeWitt Henry's website