October 31, 2012  |   Zadie Smith's latest novel, "NW," is an exploration into the joys and problems of a modern friendship between two women in North London. Decidedly less radiant than some of her earlier works, "NW" delivers the reader some harsh truths about urban living and growing older.

September 24, 2012  |   Hugh Martin recently won the Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award from The Iowa Review for his poetry. His upcoming book, "The Stick Soldiers," received the A. Poulin Jr. First Book Prize from BOA Editions. Hugh served in Iraq for 11 months. After returning, he obtained an MFA from Arizona State and he is a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

September 11, 2012  |   Iraq War veteran Hugh Martin has won the first-ever Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award from The Iowa Review, the literary journal announced Tuesday. Martin, a poet and author who served in the Ohio Army National Guard from 2001 to 2007 and spent 11 months in Iraq, submitted a collection of poems about his war experience and his return to civilian life.