American Literature Research Articles

The Other Sebastian Aho

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Dirt Clods

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Speaker Phone: Our Father, the Great Plains

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

The Viewing, and: The Bone Player , William Sidney Mount (American, 1807–1868) Oil on canvas, 1856, and: Running into My Ex-OBGYN at Whole Foods, and: Lightning Bug Ode, and: Em Dash Ode

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

The Earliest African American Literatures: A Critical Reader ed. by Zachary McLeod Hutchins and Cassander L. Smith (review)

The Earliest African American Literatures: A Critical Reader ed. by Zachary McLeod Hutchins and Cassander L. Smith (review)

History Class, and: Sunrise Under War, and: Two Watches

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Editors' Corner

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Excerpt from Lucky

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

The Infiltrators

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Angelo

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Elegy for the Me That Died in Childbirth

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

La Rochelle

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

I Have a Rendezvous with Death

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Decadent Dinosaurs: Directed Evolution in British and North American Literature, 1890s–1970s

Despite paying concerted attention to evolutionary mechanisms, literary scholars have rarely focused on forms of “directed evolution” like orthogenesis (evolution along a linear track) and phylogeronty—the parallel between the lifespan of an animal group and the lifespan of an aging individual—analogical concepts reflecting a paleontological manifestation of a wider interest in human decadence. This essay analyzes how these concepts are explored in three areas: popular adventure fiction, social reform novels by Marie Stopes and H. G. Wells, and writings by paleontologists. Across these texts, the essay argues that directed evolution offered a recognizable trajectory with which to render the complexity and strangeness of prehistoric and modern life alike into a familiar linear shape by reading certain extinct animals as moral exemplars of evolutionary failure. While reformers hoped that humans could escape the orthogenetic grooves confining nonhuman animals to extinction, this optimism was shadowed both with fears that humans might inevitably face decadence and with a sense that survival meant mediocrity.

Blood Antiquities, Arab Tears

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Elegy

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Ode to All My Late-Night Great Ideas

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Studying, and: Running Away

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Mornings at the Ministry

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.

Bell

Abstract: Ploughshares Spring 2024 The Spring 2024 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 now provides readers with thoughtful and entertaining literature in a variety of formats. Find out why the New York Times named Ploughshares "the Triton among minnows." The Spring 2024 Issue, guest-edited by Laila Lalami, features poetry and prose by Mosab Abu Toha, Nathalie Handal, January Gill O'Neil, Farah Abdessamad, Francisco Goldman, Tommy Orange, and more.