ASSAY: A JOURNAL OF NONFICTION STUDIES
12.1

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From 2013 to 2017, The Essay Review, based at the University of Iowa, published some of the most thoughtful and rigorous nonfiction scholarship we’ve had the pleasure to read. Though its run ended in 2017, the site remained online through 2025, quietly serving as an essential resource for readers and writers of nonfiction alike. When the site finally went dark, we at Assay felt the loss deeply—along with so many others in the community.

Wanting to ensure that this incredible body of work didn't disappear, we reached out to John D'Agata, who generously granted us permission to reprint the journal. We've spent the past several months planning how best to honor the spirit of the original while making these pieces newly accessible to readers today and we're so grateful to the authors who have agreed to letting us reprint their work. We particularly want to thank the editors—Michal Milstein (2013-14), Ethan Madore and Anya Ventura (2016), and Lucy Schiller and Emmett Rensin (2017)—for their vision.

Starting with this issue (Fall 2025) and continuing over the next few, we'll be sharing work from The Essay Review with permission from the original authors. If you’re discovering it for the first time, we’re thrilled to introduce you. And if you’ve been with it from the beginning, welcome back. We’re honored to bring this work into conversation with our current moment and our broader nonfiction community.
--Karen Babine
Editor, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies