Ploughshares Launches New E-Pub Initiative

This past week, longtime Emerson literary magazine Ploughshares, currently in its forty-first year, announced a plan to release original stories and novelettes for their monthly Pshares Singles series, to be launched in July. Editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph is extremely enthusiastic about the initiative, and has been looking forward to giving the magazine further digital presence to expand its reach. “I’m excited to expand on what we do—creating a new forum for longer works, and a new opportunity for writers,” she said, and expressed particular enthusiasm for upcoming titles.

Traditionally, Ploughshares has been released thrice annually—April, August, and December—and has featured some of the nation’s prominent and upcoming writers, including big names Tim O’Brien, Sue Miller, Robert Pinsky, and Jayne Anne Phillips. The magazine’s continuous mission has been to feature authors on the verge of wide recognition and make a special effort to promote unique, daring styles in both poetry and prose. Pshares Singles bloomed from the print edition of Ploughshares being unable to accommodate stories above 5,000 words; by launching this monthly release, the publication makes itself published twelve times a year and expands further into the digital universe while giving emerging authors a chance to spotlight lengthier works.

The first Pshares Singles launch will feature the latest story from author Timothy Shaffert, “Lady of the Burlesque Ballet”. Says Randolph, “His sentences are sensuous and addictive, his characters like none you’ve encountered before”. Pricing for future Pshare Singles are $1.99 for short original stories, and $3.99 for novelettes (between 30,000 and 60,000 words) and will be available on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook marketplaces, as well as digitally at pshares.org.

By Jamie Loftus