National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Jane Chu announced on Dec. 8 that The Iowa Review, the literary magazine at the University of Iowa, will receive a $10,000 NEA Art Works grant to support the publication of creative writing by U.S. military veterans and active-duty service members.

The funding will allow The Iowa Review to expand the reach of its Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans, a contest sponsored by the family of Vietnam War veteran and antiwar writer and activist Jeff Sharlet. NEA funding will allow the magazine to eliminate contest submission fees, publicize the contest among possible entrants, award five prizes, and distribute the work of the winners widely, both in print and in an online gallery.

The Iowa Review held its first veterans’ writing contest in 2012, with winners published in its spring 2013 issue. The next contest deadline will be June 1, 2016. Phil Klay, National Book Award–winning author of Redeployment, will be the final judge. The contest is open to U.S. military veterans and active-duty personnel writing in any genre and about any subject matter.

The Iowa Review is based in the Department of English, in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. It publishes three print issues per year featuring poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction. More information about The Iowa Review, including how to subscribe, purchase individual issues, or find the current issue in a bookstore, can be found at www.iowareview.org.