Northwest Review was first published by the University of Oregon in 1957. The inaugural issue sold for fifty cents and included Oregonian Ken Kesey’s first publication, a short story called “The First Sunday in September.” In its fifty-four year history, the University of Oregon’s Northwest Review published multiple winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Booker Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Since its new inception in Fall 2020, Northwest Review contributors have been Pushcart nominees, Best American Short Story winners, New York Times bestsellers, longlisted for the National Book Awards, the Pen Faulkner Award, the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and recipients of Stegner Fellowships in poetry and fiction. Alexis Sears’ poem “Hair Sestina,” which appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Northwest Review, was included in the 2022 Best American Poetry Series.