Ploughshares Fall 1990: Confronting Racial Difference

by James Alan McPherson, DeWitt Henry

Overview

The Fall 1990 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by James Alan McPherson and DeWitt Henry. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest edited serially by prominent writers who explore different and personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

Acclaimed author James Alan McPherson and Ploughshares founder and author DeWitt Henry bring together a special edition of Ploughshares titled "Confronting Racial Difference." In James Alan McPherson's essay, "The Done Thing," he writes, "There is much work that all Americans have to do to revitalize our country's spiritual life, to reclaim from the clutches of the domain of law those heartfelt assumptions that are our own. But there is a tremendous amount of work that African Americans have to do to reclaim, perhaps for the entire society, the momentum of the movement toward greater spiritual civility that was the lifework of Dr. Martin King."

This special edition of Ploughshares brings together writers of many backgrounds and offers, as DeWitt Henry says, "an energy of new voices." In his essay "On My Racism: Notes by a WASP," Henry goes on to say "Here is a largely ignored and unwritten collective experience being voiced, and variously and artistically voiced. This is the news. This is the news of our changing society and world."

This special edition of short stories, memoirs, and essays addressing racial differences in the United States features work by Diana Abu-Jaber, Robert Boswell, Sam Cornish, Kim Edwards, Garrett Hongo, Chris Offutt, George Packer, and Alberto Alvaro Rios.

"The Done Thing" by James Alan McPherson
"On My Racism: Notes by a WASP" by DeWitt Henry
"On Reading Difference" by Diana Abu-Jaber
"One Hundred Foreskins" by Louis Berney
"The Earth's Crown" by Robert Boswell
"Manny Chokra & The Epistemology of Love" by Marina Budhos
from "1935" by Sam Cornish
"Paradise" by Kim Edwards
"Blue Norther" by G.W. Hawkes
"Kubota" by Garrett Hongo
"Birth of Blues" by Robert Ivry
"The Isle of Love" by Vicki Lindner
"Abusing the Privilege" by Daniel Tyree McElrath
"Danny" by Katherine Min
"Lullaby" by Jeannette K. Miyamoto
"House Raising" by Chris Offutt
"One Out of Many" by George Packer
"Trains at Night" by Alberto Alvaro Rios
"Waiting for Mr. Kim" by Carol Roh-Spaulding
"Hard Sell" by Arnold E. Sabatelli
from "Louisiana Pile Driving" by Haruhiko Yoshimeki

Product Details

BN ID:	2940016498812
Publisher:	Ploughshares / Emerson College
Publication date:	08/15/1990
Series:	Ploughshares , #1623
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	298
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

James Alan McPherson (born September 16, 1943) is an American short story writer and essayist. He has been a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. McPherson is a member of the permanent faculty of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Born in Wayne, Pennsylvania, DeWitt Henry graduated from Amherst College in 1963 and completed his M.A. and PhD from Harvard University by 1971. In the same year, Henry co-founded the literary magazine Ploughshares, and would serve as director and editor until 1995. His books include a memoir, Sweet Dreams: A Family History (Hidden River Press, 2011); a novel, The Marriage of Anna Maye Potts (University of Tennessee Press, 2001); and a collection of essays titled Safe Suicide (Red Hen Press, 2008). He has also edited five anthologies to date, including Sorrow's Company: Writers on Loss and Grief (Beacon Press, 2001) and Fathering Daughters: Reflections by Men (Beacon Press, 1999). He is currently a professor in Emerson College's Writing, Literature, and Publishing program.