The Iowa Review

The Iowa Review
Iowareview · CC BY 4.0 · source
Title	The Iowa Review
Discipline	Literary magazine
Language	English
Publisher	University of Iowa
Country	United States
Frequency	Quarterly
Firstdate	1970

The Iowa Review is a quarterly literary magazine published by the University of Iowa that features poetry, fiction, essays, and reviews. Founded in 1970, the journal has published work by prominent and emerging writers associated with major institutions and movements in American and international letters. It is noted for cultivating relationships with creative writing programs, literary prizes, and arts organizations across the United States and abroad.

History

The magazine was established in 1970 during the era of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, a period marked by cross-pollination among figures from New York University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Harvard University, and Yale University. Early editors and contributors included alumni and faculty linked to Iowa City, the PEN America community, and writers active in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the cultural shifts of the 1970s. Over ensuing decades the magazine intersected with literary movements and institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Library of Congress, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the development of MFA programs at University of Michigan, Washington University in St. Louis, Brown University, and Cornell University. The journal’s archival holdings have been referenced by scholars working with collections at the Harry Ransom Center, the New York Public Library, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Its editorial evolution reflects dialogues with festivals and conferences including the Associated Writing Programs conferences, the Key West Literary Seminar, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Editorial Staff and Contributors

Editorial leadership has included editors and associate editors who were professors or fellows connected to institutions like Princeton University, University of California, Irvine, University of Virginia, Ohio State University, and University of Wisconsin–Madison. Contributors have ranged from Nobel laureates and Pulitzer winners associated with Columbia University and Princeton University to MacArthur fellows who taught at Brown University and Duke University. The magazine has published work by writers linked to awards and organizations including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the MacArthur Fellowship, the Whiting Awards, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Notable contributors have had affiliations with literary journals and presses such as The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Granta, Poetry (magazine), Faber and Faber, Knopf, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, HarperCollins, and Vintage Books.

Content and Notable Issues

The journal’s pages have carried poetry, short fiction, and essays engaging with works and figures from the canon and contemporary scenes, publishing pieces in dialogue with writers like Toni Morrison, John Ashbery, Elizabeth Bishop, Gertrude Stein, and James Baldwin. Special issues and themed sections have highlighted international literatures and cross-cultural dialogues involving translators and scholars tied to Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, Oxford University, and Cambridge University. Guest-edited issues have featured curators from institutions including the Getty Research Institute, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution. The magazine has commissioned portfolios and interviews with poets, novelists, and essayists connected to movements and schools such as the Beat Generation, the Black Arts Movement, the Language poets, and postmodernists associated with SUNY Buffalo and University at Buffalo. Contributors have included recipients of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy in Berlin, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Awards and Recognition

Work first published in the magazine has been selected for anthologies and prizes associated with the Best American series—such as the Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, and Best American Poetry—as well as annual selections like the Pushcart Prize. Individual pieces have been cited in compilations from editors at Oxford University Press, HarperCollins, and Norton Anthologies. Contributors have later won major honors including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Windham–Campbell Prizes. Institutional recognition has come from grants and awards administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Influence and Legacy

The magazine’s influence extends through pedagogical networks at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, the growth of MFA programs at Syracuse University, Iowa State University, and Vanderbilt University, and its role in shaping editorial standards in contemporary literary magazines such as Tin House, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, AGNI, Granta, and The Antioch Review. Its archive and back issues serve as primary sources for researchers at the Modern Language Association conferences and university presses including University of Chicago Press and Columbia University Press. The magazine has helped launch and sustain careers of writers who moved on to teach at universities like Rutgers University, University of California, Berkeley, New York University, Temple University, and Arizona State University, and who participated in cultural programs at institutions such as the 92nd Street Y and the Library of Congress.

Category:American literary magazines Category:University of Iowa