Baltimore Books

Posted on Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 10:03 am

At least it seems that way. For the 40th anniversary issue of the literary journal, Ploughshares former guest editors were invited “to contribute new work of their own, to nominate and introduce an emerging writer, or to give an account of turning points in their careers.” Three of the 20+ authors included have Baltimore ties, a glorious overepresentation. Elizabeth Spires, Director of the undergraduate program at Goucher’s Kratz Center for Creative Writing, presents poet Lindsay Stuart Hill, Goucher graduate and former Poet-in-Residence at Baltimore’s Carver Center for Arts and Technology, and her works “The Widow and the Pinecone” and “Nanquan Kills a Cat.” The latter is my favorite type of poem: a tight, coiled story, spare, brief, and complex, in this case about a woman who withdraws from a love affair and the outside world in general to live in a Buddhist monastery. Elizabeth Spires herself also contributed two poems: “A Life” and “Constructing a Religion.” Baltimore resident Laura van den Berg, introduced by Don Lee, writes about a honeymoon gone terribly wrong–something that starts with an emergency landing has got to be gripping–in “I Looked for You, I Called Your Name.” She’s also the author of the very well-received What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us (Dzanc Books, 2009).

Filed in: Baltimore authors.

Tags: Carver Center for Arts and Technology, Elizabeth Spires, Kratz Center for Creative Writing, Laura van den Berg, Lindsay Stuart Hill, Ploughshares