Founded in 1970,[1] Iowa Review is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December.

According to former editor David Hamilton, The Iowa Review has a circulation of about 3,000, of which 1,000-1,500 are distributed to major bookstore chains.

[5] Several of these pieces are selected each year for awards and anthologies: recent selections include Susan Perabo's short story "Shelter" (39.1) for The Pushcart Prize XXXV: Best of the Small Presses, 2011 edition, Eula Biss's essay "Time and Distance Overcome" (38.1) and Carolyne Wright's poem "This dream the world is having about itself..." (38.2) for The Pushcart Prize XXXIV: Best of the Small Presses, 2010 edition; Patricia Hampl's essay "The Dark Art of Description" (38.1), selected by Mary Oliver for The Best American Essays 2009; and Stephen Dunn's "Where He Found Himself" (36.2), in Best American Poetry 2007.

[6] As of Spring 2023:[7] Each year, beginning with 2003 (33.3), the magazine presents the Iowa Review Award to contest winners in fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction.

[8] Recent winners include Rochelle Goldstein Bay (Nonfiction, 2023), Eliza Gilbert (Poetry, 2023), and Gracie Newman (Fiction, 2023).