What a delight to pull the new issue of Ploughshares magazine out of the mailbox and see a happy cover illustration by former Star Tribune artist L.K. Hanson. Ploughshares also devoted 11 pages inside to a graphic memoir by Hanson, called "Some Pages From the Story of My Hand."

Hanson's work still appears weekly on the Star Tribune op-ed page. He has been artist-in-residence at St. Olaf College and has taught at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul (one of the experiences he writes and draws about for Ploughshares).

This issue -- Fall 2012 -- is devoted to nonfiction and was edited by St. Paul writer Patricia Hampl. It includes work by Charles Baxter, Phillip Lopate, Dani Shapiro, Mary Gordon and many others.

Also...

• "Revolver," a new online literary and cultural magazine (which you can read at www.around-around.com), has been launched by a group of Twin Cities writers and artists, including Esther Porter and Ben Barnhart. They aim to publish "writing that hits the brain like a bullet." The current issue includes poetry by Alex Lemon and an essay by Laird Hunt. The launch party will feature "hipster boxing," at 9 p.m. Sept. 8 at Uppercut Boxing Gym, 1324 Quincy St. NE., Minneapolis. RSVP on Facebook. (Check carefully; there are a couple of Revolver magazines on Facebook.)

• "Halloween Forest," a new picture book by Marion Dane Bauer of St. Paul, has been published by Holiday House.

• "Nighttime Ninja," a debut picture book by Barbara DaCosta of Minneapolis and illustrated by Ed Young of New York, has been published by Little, Brown.

• "Crimes of Fashion," a novel of "activist fiction" by Jill Beaudette of Arden Hills, has been published by Two Harbors Press. Beaudette's novel is about modern-day sweatshop workers in California. Beaudette will read at 2 p.m. Sept. 1 at Barnes & Noble, HarMar Mall in Roseville.

• "Around the Writer's Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer's Resistance," by Rosanne Bane, has been published by Tarcher/Penguin. Bane lives in Minneapolis.