The Blog

A Conversation with Kerry Howley, author of Thrown

Alea Adigweme

Kerry Howley is the author of Thrown, a book-length essay recounting three years she spent following a pair of Midwestern mixed martial artists. A graduate of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa—where she was also the Provost’s Visiting Writer in Nonfiction in 2012 (and my colleague)—her work can be found in Harper’sThe Paris ReviewThe New York Times and Bookforum. Howley, who teaches creative writing at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will head to Iowa City for Mission Creek.

ARMENIAN POETRY OF OUR TIME

Mary Buchinger

How does one begin to review an anthology of a century of poetry by over a hundred Armenian poets? Perhaps first by considering the translator—the one who selects the particular poems for translation from the pool of possibilities—which, in this case, is especially vast and deep given the richness of the Armenian poetry tradition.

Douglas Kearney's "In the End, They Were Born on TV" the third TIR poem selected for Best American Poetry 2015!

TIR staff

Douglas Kearney's brilliant, performative poem "In the End, They Were Born on TV" from our Spring 2014 issue has been selected for Best American Poetry 2015! That's three Iowa Review poems—a new record! The others are James Galvin's "On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses" and Michael Tyrell's "Delicatessen." Congragulations to Douglas, Jim, and Michael—and thanks to guest BAP editor Sherman Alexie.

In the End, They Were Born on TV

Helene Cardona's DREAMING MY ANIMAL SELVES

Kristina Marie Darling

Helene Cardona's beautifully crafted collection, Dreaming My Animal Selves, drifts in and out of languages, presenting poems in both English and French translations. By doing so, the book raises several compelling questions about the relationship between language and human consciousness: Does language, with its complex grammatical rules, limit what is possible within conscious experience? When one inhabits more than one language, what possibilities open up for thought, expression, and the creation of meaning? Lastly, does language make us who we are, or is there an identity core that exists apart from, or beyond, language? As Cardona teases out possible answers to these thought-provoking questions, her poems prove to be as image-rich and musical as they are faultlessly constructed. 

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