The Spring 2005 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Martin Espada. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

Guest-edited by noted poet Martin Espada, the Spring 2005 issue of Ploughshares contains prose and poetry by acclaimed authors including Karen Bender, Donald Hall, Yusef Komunyakaa, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, and Adrienne Rich. In his Introduction to the issue, Espada discusses the notion that poetry is dead in America: "Yet we are also a republic of poets, and a nation of storytellers…There are more good poems and stories being produced, and consumed — nay, devoured — in this country than ever before. If this is a funeral, then it's a jazz funeral."