Ploughshares launches PShares Singles

Ploughshares, a leading national literary magazine based at Emerson College, launched a new digital-only series of individual long stories called Pshares Singles today. Each month, a new original story (about 10,000 words in length) or novella (between 30,000 and 60,000 words) will be available to download to Kindle and Nook tablets at pshares.org. The cost of stories is $1.99; novellas are $3.99.

Ploughshares, which is in its 41st year, publishes short stories and poems three times a year (April, August, and December). It has published the early work of some of today’s most respected writers, including Tim O’Brien, Sue Miller, Robert Pinsky, and Jayne Anne Phillips. Over the years, Ploughshares has received story submissions that could not be published because they did not fit the magazine’s format of shorter pieces, approximately 5,000-word stories. PShares Singles is meant to be a new vehicle for those lengthier stories.

“I’m excited to expand on what we do—creating a new forum for longer works, and a new opportunity for writers,” said Ladette Randolph, director and editor-in-chief of Ploughshares. The first Pshares Singles story released today is “Lady of the Burlesque Ballet” by Timothy Schaffert. It was originally submitted for consideration to the magazine. “Like his wonderful novels, it is part madcap adventure, part comic burlesque, part adult fairy tale,” Randolph said. “His sentences are sensuous and addictive, his characters like none you’ve encountered before.”

Timothy Schaffert's “Lady of the Burlesque Ballet” will be the first PShares Single released in July.

Randolph is confident that Ploughshares readers and subscribers will welcome the addition of Pshares Singles, which gives them access to more original stories and new literary voices; she hopes it will also appeal to modern readers’ needs. “It creates a new experience for readers—substantive stories, in smaller doses. Readers who may not want to read an entire magazine of short stories can choose to download one longer story a month.”

Monthly editions of Pshares Singles will be available digitally at pshares.org, the Amazon.com Kindle store, and the BarnesandNoble.com Nook store. Submissions for Pshares Singles will be accepted on an ongoing basis. For more information, visit pshares.org/submit.