cream city review, founded in 1975, is a non-profit literary magazine published semi-annually, Spring and Fall, in association with the English Department of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The magazine has always been edited and produced entirely by volunteers.

cream city review takes its name from the “City of Cream-Colored Bricks,” or “Cream City,” as Milwaukee was once known. The first “cream” brick was made in 1835. Pale yellow, the bricks proved more durable and aesthetically pleasing than the traditional red bricks produced by East Coast kilns. Popular throughout the 1800s, Cream City bricks were used widely for ornamental architecture in the United States and Europe.