The Spring 2006 issue of Ploughshares, guest-edited by Kevin Young. 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 Kevin Young, the Spring 2006 issue of Ploughshares contains prose and poetry by acclaimed authors including Barry Gifford, Mary Gordon, Campbell McGrath, D. Nurkse, and Natasha Trethewey. In his Introduction to the issue, Kevin Young ruminates about the Plough & Stars, the bar where the journal was founded, a place where, "shelter in the darkness, a few rumors, and something to keep us cool" created the perfect "recipe for art." Young asserts that it is this recipe that denotes the connection between the authors' respective works, beyond any restrictive school of thought. "These poems and stories," he writes, "possess a sense of electricity and necessity that courses through the best of our art."