News & Notes

Black Lives Matter

We grieve for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, David McAtee, and James Scurlock — only the most recent and visible Black lives lost to violence, often at the hands of police. We stand in solidarity with protesters all over the world marching in their names. Both on and off the page, The Sun supports the cause of social justice. If you’re able, please consider joining us this month in contributing to those working to end systemic racism, inequality, and police brutality.

Selections on systemic racism

We’ve gathered selections from The Sun’s archive that examine white supremacy, systemic racism, mass incarceration, police brutality, and other related issues. They are all freely available for anyone to read and share. We will highlight more from our archive in the coming days.

An Update Regarding COVID-19

Due to the novel coronavirus, The Sun’s offices are temporarily closed, and staff are working from home. There may be significant delays in responding to postal mail, including payments and renewals. We anticipate that subscribers will continue to receive the magazine each month without interruption or delay.

National Short Story Month: Staff Selections

For National Short Story Month, we hope you’ll enjoy these fiction selections from The Sun’s archive. We’ve lifted our paywall during this period of isolation, so please feel free to share them with others.

We’ve Lifted Our Paywall

We have removed the paywall on our website, so that subscribers and nonsubscribers alike have access to current issues, as well as our complete archives going back to 1974.

Mission Creek Festival update

The Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City will be rescheduled.

Songs from Erin McReynolds’s Essay “Train Songs”

Erin McReynolds’s essay “Train Songs” appears in our February 2020 issue, and we thought readers might appreciate hearing the songs she mentions in the piece.

A Certain Type of Magic

A Q&A with Gary Jackson

Jackson’s poem in our February 2020 issue, “After the Reading,” details a fraught exchange after a poetry reading. Over e-mail he discussed listening to (and writing, and editing, and loving) poetry, and his affection for superhero comics -- especially the bad guys.

We aren’t attending AWP 2020

We’ve made the difficult decision not to attend this year’s AWP Conference in San Antonio.

Listen to Aimee Nezhukumatathil Read Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Voladoras”

From our 2019 tribute to Brian Doyle in Portland, Oregon.