The Spring 1976 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Tim O'Brien. Ploughshares, a journal of new writing, is guest-edited serially by prominent writers who explore different personal visions, aesthetics, and literary circles.

National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer Nominee Tim O'Brien (The Things They Carried, Going After Cacciato) compiled this issue of Ploughshares subtitled, "Special Fiction Issue." In the issue's epigraph, O'Brien quotes Charles Peguy, who states, "A review only continues to have life in it so long as each issue annoys at least one fifth of its subscribers. Justice lies in seeing that tis one fifth is not always the same one." O'Brien's selections purposefully challenge, provoke, and inspire this edition's audience. This edition features works by Pulitzer Prize winner Maxine Kumin (Up Country), Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road), future Ploughshares Guest Editor Ellen Wilbur, and O'Brien himself, along with other loyal Ploughshares contributors. He was assisted in creating the issue by Associate Editors DeWitt Henry, the founder of Ploughshares, and Henry Bromell (The Slightest Distance).