[1] Its mission is to "specialize in reviews of frequently neglected published works of fiction, poetry, and literary and cultural criticism from small, regional, university, ethnic, avant-garde, and women's presses.

In The Employment of English, Michael Bérubé writes, "When Ron Sukenick folded the University of Colorado (Boulder) branch of FC2, Normal also picked up publication of American Book Review, one of the liveliest general-purpose reader's guides for everything.

[11] In 2009, an agreement between American Book Review and Johns Hopkins University Press allowed online editions of its past issues to be available through the database ProjectMuse.

[13] The editorial staff of ABR includes Jeffrey R. Di Leo as editor-in-chief and Jake Snyder as managing editor among others.

[14] In 2024, the American Book Review was presented with the Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.