Ploughshares: 46 books

Nellie’s brother Jimmy passed away when she was only nine years old. As she reflects on the accident that claimed his life, she must acknowledge her own mortality and the empty space that death leaves behind.   Billy O'Callaghan, from Cork, Ireland, has authored three short story...

Kemi, a risk-taker who's used to getting her way, and Tola, shy and obedient, couldn't be more different, but when boarding school brings the two together, they become inseparable. Their friendship and Tola's morals are put to the test when Kemi is involved in a serious and suspicious accident. Tola...

Kaat is ready to marry her girlfriend Stone. They live together in Paris, are both pursuing their careers, and have even talked about having a baby. Then a motorcycle accident disrupts Kaat’s plans, and she is confronted by flaws in their seemingly perfect life and a secret that could destroy everything.

In 1978 James Alan McPherson made history as the first African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Told from the perspective of one of McPherson’s closest friends and students, “Old School” is a celebration of writing, memory, and true friendship and its importance in our...

On September 7, 1978, Bulgarian writer and journalist Georgi Markov was assassinated by the Bulgarian government. Since moving to London in 1970 and working as a newscaster for the BBC’s Foreign Service, he had become one of the most vocal critics of the regime, broadcasting narrative essays about...

It's been years since the woman in "Biting the Moon" has seen her former lover Felix, a famous, Oscar-winning composer. But upon hearing the news of his sudden death, she mourns his loss by revisiting moments of their former life. Jumping in time from the pair’s first encounter at an artists’...

Following the death of her father, Sasha Jean attends a family reunion, after years of estrangement, with the uncomfortable knowledge that she has inherited the estate where her relatives live. “A History of China” explores the multi-generational stories that shape this complicated family.

Alfred Nobel, inventor of nitroglycerin and inspiration for the Nobel Peace Prize, visited the United States twice. Koppargruva, from Hugh Coyle’s forthcoming book Peace at Last, is a fictionalized account of one of those excursions. Dubbed a killer by American journalists because of recent accidental...

The only reason Ebo enlists to fight in Vietnam is because it means a free trip to O’ahu where he can visit his younger sister, Momo. He hasn’t seen Momo, who is disabled, since she became a ward of the state. During his last night before leaving for basic training, Ebo’s mother lets him in...

When 11-year-old Tino isn't sitting quietly in school, he's either visiting his dying mother in the hospital or making sure his UFO-obsessed father eats dinner. A loner among his peers, Tino is surprised when Omar, the strongest boy in school, befriends him out of the blue. Will Tino's intrigue outweigh...

On a trip to Disney's Fort Wilderness with his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend June and her family, George spends most of the trip counting down the minutes until he can return to New York. On the last night of their vacation, June’s abusive mother joins them for dinner and her sister seems to disappear,...

Colin, a newly divorced lecturer of critical theory, wants to spice up his life. He attempts to learn Russian, gives online dating a go, and even entertains the idea of becoming an alcoholic—but nothing sticks. So when two young women he’s never met before ask him to party, he ignores the...

Dr. Katya Vidović left behind memories of war and a dying mother when she emigrated from Croatia to the United States as a child. Now working with adolescent girls who suffer from eating disorders fueled by the fear of losing control, Katya struggles to help her patients while confronting her own desperate need to make peace with the past.

As he awaits the results of his HIV test, Eduardo recalls the summer of his thirteenth year, when he learned about the crimes of his father, a Nazi officer at Dachau. Struggling with this knowledge, young Eduardo takes solace in visiting the lake where his father died, but his guilt is complicated...