Ploughshares: 46 books

Polly always finds refuge in painting. But when the beautiful landscapes of the Maine island where she spends her summers leave her uninspired, she questions the life she’s been living for the past thirty years. Will the reappearance of an old, seemingly successful friend be the spark Polly needs...

In 2013, Eli Mandel decided to recreate the 642-mile trek that John Keats completed in the summer of 1818, hoping to learn more about the famous poet who died at the age of twenty-five. As Mandel matches his “ghostly companion’s” journey step-for-step, the moments of discovery turn inward and Mandel is forced to face his own ghosts.

Tim Parrish’s “The Critic” is a slightly surrealist account of the fraught, yet creative relationship cultivated between artists and critics. We meet a music critic who has devoted his entire life to covering the career of an elusive, Bob Dylan-esque musician referred to as “The Twerp.”...

Kyle Waller has spent his life working to the top of the corporate ladder, but now that retirement has come for him, he’s not sure what’s next. A chance encounter at a bar sends Kyle to Belize to chase adventure and an archaeological discovery that could make history.