The Blog

We’re excited to announce that the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers has been awarded to Doug Henderson for his short story “The Manga Artist,” first published in The Iowa Review Winter 2018/19 edition. The story was also the runner-up for the 2018 Iowa Review Awards in fiction, and judge Alexander Chee said, “‘The Manga Artist’ is a sublime melding of the comic form and the short story, at least three ways, and this cross-hatch of queer desire and cross-cultural conversation results in an ingenious and moving short story unlike any other I’ve read.” Henderson and Iowa Review staff accepted the award at the 55^th annual PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony in New York City on February 26.

The founder of Ploughshares, DeWitt Henry recently published Sweet Marjoram, a book of essays following a series of nonfiction books and memoirs, as well as essays. This newest work consists of twenty-two meditations with two-word titles, each prefixed by “on.” One thing we are struck by is the author’s extensive range of knowledge, evidenced at a glance by notably diverse topics: “On Weather,” “On Time,” “On Empathy,” “On Conscience,” “On Falling,” “On Handshakes,” “On Silence,” “On Dignity,” “On Privilege,” On Dreams,” “On Cursing,” “On Voice.” And ten more. An encyclopedic work. This thought-provoking book is nearly exhaustive of human experience, human behavior, psychology—the fundamental nature of humans and their being in the world.