Ploughing a prestigious furrow

Ploughshares is an award-winning US quarterly which will celebrate fifty years of publication next year. Edited by Ladette Randolph, the title is based at Emerson College in Boston, and is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Mass Cultural Council.

The editorial team are currently considering submissions of fiction, poetry and non-fiction no longer than 7,500 words.

Longer works, up to 20,000 words, can be submitted for separate publication as part of the Ploughshares Solo series (think a more ‘literary’ Kindle Single).

Submissions can be in any genre, but should be of a high literary standard. Non-fiction should be creative rather than journalistic. Simultaneous submissions to other journals are fine as long as they are identified as such and you notify Ploughshares immediately if you are accepted elsewhere. No multiple submissions, with the exception that up to five pages of poetry can be submitted at a time, single spaced, with each poem beginning on a fresh page.

Submit through the website: www.pshares.org/ submission-manager as a

The RNA has announced its Industry Award Winners, which are given to professionals whose work supports the romance genre.

•The Inclusion Award, which recognises the individual or organisation that has championed inclusivity in romantic authorship and publishing, went to Julie Cohen. The bestselling novelist’s The Two Lives of Louis & Louise was longlisted for the Polari Prize. She is patron of literacy charity ABC to Read, doc, rtf or pdf file. There is a $3 submission fee (except for subscribers) but this is cheaper than international postage. You can, if you wish, make submission by mail to Ploughshares, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116-4624, USA.

Payment is $45 per printed page, $90 minimum, $450 maximum, plus two contributor copies and a one-year subscription. Follow the full guidelines at www. pshares.org/submit/

The editorial team is also accepting pitches (not finished articles) for an ongoing series called Look2 Essay, which explores the work of under-appreciated and overlooked writers. Your chosen author can be living or dead, and be from anywhere in the world. The essay will take stock of the writer’s entire oeuvre and include relevant biographical details. The deadline for pitches is 15 January.