Professor Published in Prestigious Ploughshares Journal

 

Ploughshares at Emerson College in Boston recently announced the fictional piece "The Man in Question," by Salt Lake Community College English and writing professor Lynn Kilpatrick, PhD, will be published in its Winter 2021-22 issue.

Ploughshares is widely recognized as an award-winning journal that features new original poetry and prose that represents the freshest voices in contemporary American literature.

Kilpatrick is a full professor in SLCC's Department of English, Linguistics & Writing Studies. She is the author of the short-story collection "In the House (FC2, 2010)." Her essays have appeared in Zone 3, Creative Nonfiction and Ninth Letter. Previous stories have appeared in Hotel Amerika and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. A collection of her prose sonnets and drawings by John Sproul was exhibited at the Salt Lake City Public Library and subsequently published in Western Humanities Review. She is currently working on a new collection of stories titled "She Said."

In her own words, Kilpatrick describes the inspiration for the story, her writing process and a little bit about the subject:

"This story was a gift from COVID honestly. In October of 2020, I was experiencing bouts of insomnia. I would wake up at 5 a.m, toss and turn, then eventually get out of bed. One morning I woke up at 5 with this story unfolding in my mind. I had been thinking about it, I guess, but that day the whole thing spilled out of me. I got up at 5 and wrote the whole thing down in one sitting. I sent it to a friend who gave me some feedback.

"I revised it a little, then sat on it for a week or so. Then I sent it out to three places and Plougshares took it. That was a gift as well. I haven’t sent stories out in…years. I’m really pleased they accepted it and I’m very anxious to see it in print.

"Anyone who reads it will quickly recognize the echoes of current events, such as the #metoo movement, the Kavanaugh hearings, and discussions we’ve been having about the effects of trauma. Certainly those events shaped this story, but also I drew on my experiences as a mother, and my memories of being a teen-aged girl.

"The story poses more questions than it answers, so I guess it’s fitting that the title is 'The Man in Question.'"

Here Kilpatrick shares the first paragraph of her story:

 

I wasn’t surprised when I heard the stories about him on the news. Because of what had happened. Because of his -- antics, his demeanor, maybe you’d say. I knew him back then and it’s been a long time now. But still.