Ploughshares Spring 2002 Guest-Edited by Cornelius Eady

The Spring 2002 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Cornelius Eady. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

Edited by award-winning poet Cornelius Eady (Kartunes, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze), this issue features new works from Elizabeth Alexander, Terrance Hayes, Shreela Ray, Al Young, and Yolanda Wisher. Released after the September 11 attacks, Eady's introduction dwells on the aftermath of the event, the sensation of the amputee convinced that "when the smoke / clears [her legs] will be / standing." Though the works of the issue were written before the attacks, Eady expresses hope that they all exhibit "true human commerce, the witnessing of what has, and hopefully will continue, to go between us" in our worldwide trading of ideas. As Eady and his fellow New Yorkers waited, "scared and impatient… for the new 'normal'" after the attacks, this issue represented for Eady a preservation of past American culture before everything changed, something that he wanted to be remembered as we all progressed into an unknown future.

INTRODUCTION
Cornelius Eady, "Postcard of New York"

FICTION

"Run Away, My Pale Love," by Steve Almond
"Trash Traders," by Jane Avrich
"Iowa Winter," by Geoffrey Becker
"The Good Times Are Killing Me," by Erika Krouse
"Kudzu," by William Henry Lewis
"Famous Builder," by Paul Lisicky
"Native Sandstone," by Maile Meloy
"Fictions," by Sandell Morse

POETRY

Elizabeth Alexander
Linda Bamber
Milahail Borich
Andrea Carter Brown
Julie Bruck
Jan Clausen
Toi Derricotte
R. Erica Doyle
Eugene Dubnov
Denise Duhamel
Martin Espada
Julie Fay
Marilyn Hacker
Kimiko Hahn
Forrest Hamer
Yona Harvey
Lola Haskins
Terrance Hayes
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Tyehimba Jess
Hettie Jones
Patricia Spears Jones
A. Van Jordan
Hedi Kaddour
Julia B. Levine
Timothy Liu
Shara McCallum
Kathleen McGookey
Gregory Pardlo
Ed Pavlic
Dannye Romine Powell
Minnie Bruce Pratt
Kevin Prufer
Shreela Ray
Michael Symmons Roberts
Natasha Saje
Reginald Shepherd
Hal Sirowitz
Sandy Solomon
Brian Swann
Reetika Vazirani
Charles Harper Webb
Yolanda Wisher
Scott Withiam
Al Young

EDITOR PROFILE
Natasha Trethewey