The Spring 2020 Issue. Ploughshares is an award-winning journal of new writing. Since 1971, Ploughshares has discovered and cultivated the freshest voices in contemporary American literature, and remains prescient in the digital age by providing readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares “the Triton among minnows.” As guest-editor Tracy K. Smith writes in her introduction, “I know the most urgent work ahead—for my daughter and for me—lies in striking the balance between fear, hope, and the willingness to keep at it...That’s the conversation—about what we fear, and what in light of our fear we must do—in which the many writerly voices gathered here seem to be engaged.” Featuring poetry and prose by Kirstin Valdez Quade, Dawn Lundy Martin, Denise Duhamel, Roger Reeves, Brenda Hillman, and many others.