The New American Canon

The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture

Samuel Cohen, series editor

Featuring authors working in and outside of the academy, the New American Canon series is home to engaging criticism that explores contemporary artworks of all genres, including literature, film, music, and the visual arts. The series pushes to meet art on its own terms, treating works of art as products of and comments on the diverse American cultures from which they come. The books in this series focus on the contemporary, aiming to join and start important critical conversations and bring new works into the American canon.

Advisory Board

  • Adam Bradley
  • Carolyn Kellogg
  • Louis Menand
  • Paul Giles
  • Jonathan Lethem
  • Lydia Millet
  • Greil Marcus
  • Maggie Nelson
  • Mark McGurl
  • Timothy Yu

Please send inquiries and proposals to Samuel Cohen.

Two people playing guitars face each other. An orange triangle containing the title separates them.

Air Split Open

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$29.95
eBook
Retail price
$29.95

Reading Relations

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$95.00
eBook
Retail price
$95.00
A metal statue of a man with his torso missing stands on a rock. Through him, the ocean is visible.

Contemporary Immigrant Writing and Black America

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$95.00
eBook
Retail price
$95.00

The Afterlife of Taste Hierarchies in Contemporary U.S. Art and Literature

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$95.00
eBook
Retail price
$95.00
The book’s title blurs in front of a cage-like border fence.

Genre Migrations

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$75.00
eBook
Retail price
$75.00
A tan, purple, and orange image of a person looking off to the left. The art style resembles a printed poster from the sixties.

Easy

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$35.00
Sale price
$26.00
eBook
Retail price
$35.00
The book's title, "Writing Through Writer's Block," is set against a green background and partially obscured by fog

Writing Through Writer’s Block

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$95.00
eBook
Retail price
$95.00
Jesmyn Ward wears a red dress and stands in front of a vivid, green field.

The Writings of Jesmyn Ward

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$75.00
eBook
Retail price
$75.00
The book's title, "purplish: poetry anger publics" in white lowercase typeface. The background appears soft and textured, like dried acrylic paint of peeling wallpaper.

purplish

Paperback
Retail price
$35.00
eBook
Retail price
$35.00
Brier book cover

Novel Competition

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$85.00
eBook
Retail price
$85.00
Strand book cover

The Global Frontier

Author(s)
Paperback
Retail price
$92.50
eBook
Retail price
$92.50
Johnston book cover

Profiles and Plotlines

Paperback
Retail price
$90.00
eBook
Retail price
$90.00