The Spring 2003 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Carl Phillips. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

Edited by award-winning poet Carl Phillips (Silverchest, Double Shadow, In the Blood), this issue features new works from Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Charles Wright (Black Zodiac, The Other Side of the River) and Dean Young (Elegy on Toy Piano), along with acclaimed authors Carol Muske-Dukes (Sparrow), Bei Ling (The Deceived), David St. John (The Face: A Novella In Verse), and Robert Pinsky (The Life of David). 

In his introduction, Phillips recounts an interview where the interviewer describes a deer in Phillips' poem as "an occurrence," and Phillips then relates his reaction to this turn of phrase to his attitude towards editing the issue, aiming to curate works that produce "surprise at the level of language," and which explore "being a sensual and vulnerable and emotional creature in a world that finally does not require us." He wants "nothing gutless, and nothing without its ability to surprise."