Founded in Boston in 1815, the North American Review is the nation’s oldest literary magazine. Its contributors have included prominent literary and public figures, from Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln to Margaret Atwood and Kurt Vonnegut.

After a production hiatus during World War II, the magazine was revived in 1964 in Iowa, initially published by Cornell College. Four years later, UNI acquired the magazine and has been its publisher ever since.

In recent years, the editorial staff has expanded the magazine’s reach beyond its pages through initiatives like the Cedar Valley Youth Poet Laureate program. The program offers free workshops for local youth culminating with the selection of a local high school youth poet laureate. Lamya Pratchett, a Waterloo East High student, was named the inaugural laureate for 2024.