The Blog

Jonathan Safran Foer's HERE I AM

Eric Farwell

With Jonathan Safran Foer’s gritty new novel, Here I Am, it’s hard not to read it in the context of his recent public divorce. The 571-page work deals with a nearly middle-aged Jewish couple who are drifting apart and going through the motions of separation. The book does its best to account for small moments that keep a marriage together or destroy it, articulating both how invisible they are and how short the distance is between one extreme and the other. Foer should be applauded for his diligent scrutiny of love and modern Jewish masculinity, which moves beyond the bloated narratives that make up much literary fiction to become a soulful meditation on identity and obsession.

Three placed in BEST AMERICAN NONREQUIRED READING 2016

TIR Staff

We're thrilled to announce that three Iowa Review works—two short stories and an essay—have been placed in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2016. This year's editor was Rachel Kushner.

Fiction

Anna Kovatcheva's "Sudba 1," Volume 45, Issue 2

Yuko Sakata's "On This Side," Volume 45, Issue 1

Essay

Inara Verzemnieks' "Homer Dill's Undead," Volume 45, Issue 2

Max Ritvo's FOUR REINCARNATIONS

Devon Walker-Figueroa

Max and I were first introduced to each other in 2015 and immediately bonded through a series of ensuing e-mail and text correspondences—usually about poetry, but also about painting, glass blowing, and balloon races, among other things. In addition to this more casual exchange, I read and gave Max editorial feedback on early versions of Four Reincarnations. Indeed, I loved the poems I found within its pages so much that I ended up publishing several of them in The Iowa Review, where I serve as the poetry editor, and in Horsethief Magazine, a publication I co-founded with Justin Boening.

From the Archives: Ray A. Young Bear's "The Lone Swimmer of Henry County, Virginia"

Ray A. Young Bear

The Lone Swimmer of Henry County, Virginia

ESP? We're not discounting anything at this stage.
—Undersheriff Earl Tassel, The Roanoke Messenger

One placed, four honored in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2016

TIR Staff

We're delighted to announce that five works of fiction from previous issues of The Iowa Review have been honored by The Best American Short Stories 2016, including Yuko Sakata's "On This Side," which was placed in the volume. Congrats to all!

Best American Short Story