Three poems by Newtown resident Charles Rafferty - "Unnoticed," "The Problem with Wanting Something" and "The Problem with Mercy" - have been published in the Winter 2016-17 issue of Ploughshares.Ploughshares features a collection of essays, poems, and short stories that remind readers that below the surface, there is always something unseen.

The staff-edited issue of

Mr Rafferty's tenth book of poetry is The Unleashable Dog (Steel Toe Books, 2014). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker O, the Oprah Magazine and The Southern Review;;; Prairie Schooner, among many other notable publications.

His collection of prose poems titled The Smoke of Horses is due out with BOA Editions this year, and his collection of short fiction is titled Saturday Night at Magellan's. Currently, he directs the MFA program at Albertus Magnus College.

In addition to Mr Rafferty's work, the 2016-17 Ploughshares winter issue features prose by Tristan Hughes and Irina Reyn and poetry by Mairead Small Staid, Bill Knott, and sam sax. The winners of the 2016 Emerging Writer's Contest appear, along with the announcement of the 2016 John C. Zacharis Award winner.

Ploughshares Ploughshares Solos, digital-first long stories and essays, along with a literary blog. Ploughshares has been based at Emerson College, in downtown Boston, since 1989.publishes issues four times each year. Best known for the award-winning literary print magazine that is published three times a year (with two issues guest-edited by a prominent author), the group also publishes

Copies of the Winter 2016-17 issue are $14 for print, $6.99 digital, and available through pshares.org.