From Publishers Weekly
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1995, the Iowa Review has built a reputation as a leading American literary quarterly. Current editor Hamilton has culled selections from throughout the magazine's history for this anthology, which will be of special interest to followers of poetry. The volume includes strong poems by such established poets as Charles Simic, Tess Gallagher, Adrienne Rich, W.S. Merwin, James Tate and Donald Hall, as well as standouts from lesser-knowns such as Jon Anderson, Pattiann Rogers and Rochelle Nameroff, offering readers a lively sampler of American poetry over the past quarter century. Unfortunately, the fiction fares less well. Despite solid work from established masters of the short story such as Robert Coover, Raymond Carver and Charles Baxter, along with an especially strong story, "Wonderland," by C.S. Godshalk, the bulk of the fiction does not seem especially worthy of anthologizing. Nor does it succeed in conveying a full, cohesive sense of the development of recent American fiction. Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For twenty-five years, the Iowa Review has published many of America's finest writers, often helping them become established in their careers. From Tillie Olsen and William Stafford in the first volume to James Galvin and Pattiann Rogers in the twenty-fourth, the names and voices are recognizable and respected or soon will be. As editor David Hamilton notes in his introduction to this eclectic anniversary volume of nearly eighty poems and stories, "To a considerable extent we have defined ourselves by them; thus Hard Choices, a generous sampling of the best and most interesting writing from the Iowa Review's first years, defines the past and the future of American literature." The Iowa Review is one of a small group of dedicated literary magazines that have defined American literary culture in the past quarter century. The adventurous, stimulating pieces in Hard Choices will encourage readers to look forward to the next quarter century.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly