The Blog

Siebenundvierzig

Anthony Madrid

Siebenundvierzig. What’s that to me.
Tabor for sackbut and panic for joy.
When that I was and a tiny little boy,—
Spare me your sparrow’s tears.

Siebenundvierzig. Reel in the years.
The floor, the ceiling, the window, the wall.
The relatives willingly promise you all
That the cat leaves in the malt heap.

Siebenundvierzig. Losing some sleep.
Sisal and this’ll suffice for a rope.
Osprey drops into Seattle, comes up
With a fish in its fish-hook feet.

Siebenundvierzig. Here’s your receipt,
Mediocrity, self-satisfaction, and vehemence.
This is that mind-reading, I’m-sicking-demons-
On-my-enemies style of Buddhism.

Siebenundvierzig. Me and the moon,
We’re gonna patch up our differences soon.
A Voice from the Unfathomable said with a boom:
Agree, for the law is costly.

In partnership with University of Iowa Press, The Iowa Review is honored to present this excerpt from Barret Baumgart's China Lake, winner of the 2016 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction, out in May 2017. For additional reading, Guernica published another excerpt of Baumgart's book.

THE IOWA REVIEW celebrates National Poetry Month 2017

Devon Walker-Figueroa

This year, The Iowa Review is celebrating National Poetry Month with a thirty-day online feature, which means we will be bringing you a new poem, by a different writer, each day of April. The featured poems range widely in subject and form, and will take you everywhere from the frozen aisle at the local market to a Midwestern wasteland to a mythic courtroom in which God has been called to the stand.

Please join us in celebrating poetry—its complexity, humanity, and enduring necessity in our lives—by bringing just one new poem into your day for the next month.

Here is a list of this year’s featured poets:

2017–18 Internships at The Iowa Review

TIR Staff

The Iowa Review (TIR), the University of Iowa’s literary magazine, seeks two undergraduate interns for the academic year 2017–18 as part of a partnership with the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU). Please note that we are currently not offering a summer internship.

Qualifications

Candidates must be University of Iowa undergraduates, have a UI GPA of 3.33 or above, be entering their junior or senior year, and be English majors. They should be detail-oriented, self-starting, and able to work independently, and they should have a strong interest in literary writing, editing, and publishing.

Duties

Interns will work 6 hours a week from August 21, 2017, through May 4, 2018 (University breaks not included), and receive a scholarship of $2,000 ($1,000 per semester).

Mike Scalise's THE BRAND NEW CATASTROPHE

Ethan Madore

There’s a scene in Mike Scalise’s The Brand New Catastrophe where Scalise, twentysomething and struggling to find full-time work in New York City, arrives in Central Park for a job interview. In short, it’s a catastrophe. Scalise, having spent days imagining this job—and its benefits package—as his last chance, a final lifeline into honorable employment and actual health insurance, arrives sickly with nerves. Distracted by an errant German shepherd, he admits to the interviewer that he just “wants a job, any job.” She gives him the look, an expression of resigned disapproval Scalise practically majored in.

Siebenundvierzig

From CHINA LAKE

THE IOWA REVIEW celebrates National Poetry Month 2017

2017–18 Internships at The Iowa Review

Qualifications

Duties

Mike Scalise's THE BRAND NEW CATASTROPHE

Pages

Find Us