PS pitches are now open! PS presents contemporary dialogues between today’s writers and Ploughshares‘ archive.  We invite you to consider how your practice converses, converges, and complicates work in our past issues. See the full guidelines: https://pshares.org/about-ps/

Thinking about submitting to our reading period? Check out the Spring issue for inspiration! Pick up your copy and see our reading period guidelines: https://pshares.org/

Our regular reading period is now open! Send us your fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and longform poetry and prose between June 1 and November 15 at 5:00 pm EST for the chance to be published in a future issue of Ploughshares. Read the guidelines and submit: https://pshares.org/submit/submit-writing/

Look what's sprouting...our Spring 2026 issue! Get your copy: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

"...He minded knowing that he was hated more than the hatred itself." Read Jessica Roeder's story, "You're Not Alone," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/youre-not-alone/

"And now to write again I ask again / Muse you to make the story roll through me" Read Shane McCrae's poem, "Invocation Re: The Second Part of an Epic," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/invocation-re-the-second-part-of-an-epic/

Do you like a springtime walk with a good book? You’re in luck…check out our Spring 2026 issue, edited by Annie Finch 🍄 https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

"Without authority, I watched my kind today misplace again its kindness" Read Jane Hirshfield's poem, "Today, Without Authority," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/today-without-authority/

We are pleased to announce that five pieces originally published in Ploughshares have been included in The Pushcart Book of Twenty-First Century Poetry and Prose! See the list of contributors on our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psharesjournal/

Guest editor Annie Finch writes that the pieces in our Spring issue "can move us forward into—and leave a legacy to nourish—the new, more fully human world we’re creating together." Pick up your copy today and move forward into the new beginnings of spring: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

"We put all / our eggs in one / basket case—a guy / who is one egg short of / an omelet." Read Denise Duhamel's poem, "Goose Egg," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/goose-egg/

We're excited to share that the 2026 collection of The Best American Short Stories, selected by Viet Thanh Nguyen, includes three stories originally published in Ploughshares. Congratulations to Eliot Fox, Nathan Blum, and Carolyn Ferrell!

Did you miss our Spring 2026 issue launch reading on April 15th? Catch the full recording on PS on May 15th! Until then, enjoy this teaser. 🌺 Filming and editing by Jonny Ulasien.

"Even now, they were capable of having a civil time." Read Molly Dektar's story, "Jubilee," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/jubilee-2/

This Tuesday, we celebrated the end of National Poetry Month at the St. Botolph Club, featuring readings from Ploughshares' founding Editor DeWitt Henry; former Poetry Editor John Skoyles; and St. Boltoph Emerging Writer Fellowship grantees Rage Hezikiah, Jordan Escobar, and Sarah Audsley!

"in the rot / and filth of a / landfill is the / poet's voice" Read CAConrad's poem, "Selections from First Light," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/selections-from-first-light/

Tired of spring cleaning? Take a break and read our new Spring 2026 issue! Get your copy: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

"The poem said the imperfect is so hot in us, / and I replied yes—I’m devout and flammable" Read Traci Brimhall's poem, "Two Truths and a Lie," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/two-truths-and-a-lie/

Our Spring 2026 issue is out now! Pick up your copy to find new work by 46 poets, just in time for National Poetry Month: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

Ploughshares is excited to partner with The Unsung Masters Series! In this PS essay, Martin Rock (@infinite-scroll.bsky.social), poet, translator, and Co-Director of the series, considers the archive as a living site of resistance.

"...My job, to live / as low to the ground / as a person can live / and still be said to stand." Read Gabrielle Bates's poem, "Lady Patriots," in the Spring 2026 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/lady-patriots/

We are pleased to present Barbara Lock with the annual Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction for her story, "Keep You Safe," from the Summer 2025 issue of Ploughshares!  Read an interview with Barbara in our new Spring 2026 issue: https://pshares.org/issue-article/alice-hoffman-prize-for-fiction-3/

🌷 April showers bring May flowers…and our Spring 2026 issue, out today. Pick up your copy to find poetry and prose by Traci Brimhall, Molly Dektar, Jane Hirshfield, Shane McCrae, Jessica Roeder, Sapphire, Patricia Smith, Alpay Ulku, Karen Winn, and more: https://pshares.org/product/spring-2026/

"I divide my father / from being dead when / he visits in dreams." Read Hadara Bar-Nadav's poem, "Bad Math," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/bad-math/

🌦️ COVER REVEAL! 🌦️Our Spring 2026 issue, guest-edited by Annie Finch, comes out this Wednesday, April 8th. The issue includes new work by 46 poets and three prose writers, and features Ana Seggiaro’s “La Melancolía” (2020) on the cover. Subscribe before 11:59 pm on April 8th to get your copy!

Join us for a celebration of our upcoming Spring 2026 issue at Trident Booksellers in Boston on Wednesday, April 15th, at 6 pm! Register: https://bit.ly/4lPcfxX

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted to our 2026 Emerging Writers’ Contest! Our readers and judges look forward to reading your submissions. Winners will be announced in September.  Didn’t submit in time? Have no fear! Our regular reading period opens June 1st at noon EST.

Our Emerging Writers' Contest closes TOMORROW at 12:00pm EST! Please note that we will NOT be extending the deadline this year—tomorrow at noon is your last chance. Submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/

"wherever I walked, from whatever I leapt, Death's footsteps / lived inside mine." Read Erin Belieu's poem, "Inside the Columbarium of My Old Misery" in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://bit.ly/47QO7oO

“In the beginning, there was the word, and therefore words are magic...” In this meditation on belief, the craft of fiction, and the ecstatic imagination, Alice Hoffman considers how the magic of writing mirrors St. Teresa’s descriptions of spiritual rapture. Read more: https://bit.ly/4sqrEqU

There's only ONE WEEK LEFT of our Emerging Writers' Contest! Send us your fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by March 31 at noon EST for the chance to win $2,000, publication in Ploughshares, & a conversation with a literary agency! Submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/

"How in tragedy, we touch our own faces first." Read Victoria Chang's poem, "Weeping Woman," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/weeping-woman/

There are only TWO WEEKS LEFT to submit to our Emerging Writers' Contest! Send us your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by March 31st at noon EST for the chance to win $2,000, publication in Ploughshares, and a conversation with a literary agency! Submit: https://bit.ly/3ZWP0I8

"I’d communed with the dead, my dead, to make / Sense of the sunless depths." Read Maggie Dietz's poem, "Someone Else," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

"Rule-breaking in some circumstances is wiser than obedience." In our second PS piece, “Losing My Maps,” Bonnie Friedman reflects on craft and risk through Kathryn Harrison’s guest-edited Fall 2009 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/ps/ps-losing-my-maps/

Ploughshares offers the best in new poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Subscribe today for access to decades of archive content, our quarterly literary journal, and free submission opportunities!

The winter blues are no match for a hot drink and a cozy night in with our Winter 2025-26 issue. Grab your copy today: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

"I took up the love charm and held it in my hands and wished that the world was different than it was." Read Alice Hoffman's story, "My Confessor," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://bit.ly/4sBF7Ma

Come visit us at #AWPBaltimore! We'll be hosting book signings by three recent contributors at Table #T427. Plus, don't miss our offsite event this Thursday, in collaboration with The Adroit Journal and The Kenyon Review! RSVP: https://bit.ly/3N2K81e

"So-and-so brushed / my shoulder as gunshots / cracked."  Read Mostafa Ibrahim's poem (translated by Abdelrahman ElGendy), "So-and-So," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

We're so pleased to have published new work by three of our past guest editors in our Winter 2025-26 issue! Read their pieces and check out their guest-edited issues: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

Will you be at #AWPBaltimore? Visit Ploughshares at Table #T427 for book signings with contributors Rasaq Malik Gbolahan and Hadara Bar-Nadav and upcoming guest editor Justin Torres! Copies of their books will be available for purchase.

"I tell my sisters not to worry. / I will garden the sadness / away." Read Abbie Kiefer's poem, "Assistance," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://pshares.org/issue-article/assistance/

Ready to be discovered? Submit your fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to the Emerging Writers’ Contest between February 1 and March 31 for the chance to win a conversation with the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management! Learn more and submit: https://pshares.org/submit/emerging-writers-contest/

"No falling: just goldenrod, blown willowy breath, and the cold bruised sky." Read Jennifer Martelli's poem, "Fake Wool," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares, available here: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

In our first PS post, a love letter to our archive, Kathryn Nuernberger, Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh, and Heidi Czerwiec discuss the work of Maxine Kumin, Annie Dillard, and Toi Derricotte in previous issues of Ploughshares. Read more: https://bit.ly/4rQBUIv XO, Ploughshares

Be a part of the Ploughshares community! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get book announcements, author readings, and literary events in your inbox every Friday. Sign up: https://pshr.us/2w9Dg5w

Take some time to reflect on the poetry and prose in our Winter 2025-26 issue, available now: https://pshares.org/product/winter-2025-26/

"My flesh is over here, in this tall, red building, behind pale, green glass, looking out at the million paths that seem to lead everywhere..." Read Reginald McKnight's piece, "You Wouldn't Think So, But Here We Are," in the Winter 2025-26 issue of Ploughshares: https://bit.ly/4tpLT9d

Coming soon: PS! PS is Ploughshares’ tribute to our history; an online addendum to our print issues. Here you’ll find essays, interviews, recordings, & other ephemera in direct conversation with our current issue and 50+ year archive. Be on the lookout for our first PS publication later this month.