Iron Horse Literary Review publishes short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
General Guidelines:
• All manuscripts must be submitted online, via Submittable. We do not accept submissions via regular mail or email.
• Our submission gates open and close on a rolling basis between mid-August and mid-April each year. Please observe our submission periods; we reject manuscripts that do not fit the theme or genre of that submission period, without comment. See the table on our website for dates and topics. If the gate is not open, do not attempt to submit by purchasing a back issue or any other item. Wait till the gate is open.
• We do not publish previously published materials.
• Regular submissions: Prose writers should send one manuscript (5,500 words or less); poets should send 3-5 poems. Manuscripts that do not meet these parameters will be rejected, without comment.
• Longer manuscripts must be entered in our annual Trifecta Competition (Prose: one essay or story, 25-40 pages; poetry: a single poem, 10-20 pages long). We reject, without comment, any long manuscripts that come in during other submission periods.
• We review only three manuscripts by any one author during any one academic year; subsequent manuscripts by the same author will be automatically rejected.
• Iron Horse accepts simultaneous submissions but please inform us immediately if a submission is taken elsewhere. Just send us a note through Submittable or via email: ihlr.mail@gmail.com. We'll be happy for you and will much appreciate the head's up.
• Upon publication, we provide an honorarium of $50 per poem or flash piece and $100 per story or essay. Trifecta winners (one each in poetry, nonfiction, and fiction) receive $250. The Single-Author Chapbook winner receives $1,000. Prizes for filmfest winners include $300 (Editor's Prize) and $200 (Audience Award).
• Please include a COVER LETTER with your name, email address, and the title(s) of work submitted, but paste your COVER LETTER into the appropriate field in Submittable. Do NOT include your cover letter inside the manuscript itself--not as the first or any page inside the submission. We will immediately REJECT manuscripts including cover letters.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with IHLR before you submit your work. Find more about the current issue as well as subscription information on our website.
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For further information on any topic, send us an email.
Iron Horse Literary Review charges a $3 submission fee for each regular manuscript submitted to our office (our various competitions have entry fees). Like every literary journal in the country, we're compelled to demonstrate that we are both a fruitful project, with many benefits, as well as self-sufficient rather than a drain on limited funds. Together, with your help, we can keep the literary arts alive, and we hope you will be happy to spend $3 for your submission rather than giving that money to an office supply store and the post office. We also offer free submission days during every submission period. Follow us on social media to see those announcements and receive the hidden links.
Thank you for your continued support of Iron Horse! Without writers, we wouldn't even exist--
Iron Horse Literary Review will begin accepting translation submissions for the first time! The submission window for all issues in the 2025/2026 production year will open on October 1 and close on Nov 15.
Translations will be accepted in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. And submitters will indicate which issue they wish their work to be considered for:
- IHLR 28.1 (Open Issue--essays, poems, and stories on any topic)
- 2026 NaPoMo (a special folio on poetry translations)
- IHLR 28.2 (the Toy issue--essays, poems, and stories related to "toys" or "play"
General Guidelines
- Prose length requirements: We read flash prose (1,200 words or less) and stories/essays (up to 5,500 words). We do not consider translated stories or essays longer than 5,500 words.
- Poets should submit three to five translated poems by the same original author.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if the manuscript is taken elsewhere the moment that it happens.
- We will need the original author's permission to publish the work, as well as their biographical statement for the issue's contributor notes.
- If possible and space permits, we will try to publish the original work as well as the translation. Typesetting and space limitations will not always make that possible.
Honorarium
The translator receives our standard honorarium ($100 for full-length prose, $50 for flash prose, and $50 per poem. The original author, if still living, will receive a small honorarium as well: $50 total regardless of genre or number of poems published.
Free Submission Day
As with all issues, Iron Horse offers at least one day every submission cycle during which submitters can send us their work without paying the reading fee. For translations, the free submit day for the 2025/2026 production year is November 1.
Each submitter can only enter one submission on our free days; subsequent submissions on that day by the same writer will be automatically rejected.
Finally, the Free Submit days are intended to target those writers who cannot afford to submit to literary journals otherwise. If you can afford to enter, then please use our regular submission portal for this issue and thus support our efforts to continue offering a platform for writers to publish their work. It's exhausting work, fighting for our survival, arguing our worth, with upper administrators every year.
NOTE: Free submissions will not receive feedback.
Submission Cap
We will review only 100 translation submissions per year and no more. The gate will close if we reach 100 submissions before the closing date of November 15. We will review only 30 free submissions, and then the portal for the Free Submit day closes.
Submissions are now open for our 2025 themed issue! This year, the theme we’ve chosen is TOYS. Send us your stories that center around toys: Yahtzee, Easy Bake Ovens, Hot Wheels, dolls, trucks, pretend (!) guns, finger paints, marbles, collectibles, family traditions, play, winners, losers, sharing, refusing to share, hand-me-down toys, and more.
Send us work that is playful, that makes a toy of form, plot, characters, or the readers themselves, and isn’t afraid to rule the playground. Consider what makes a game all in good fun and what happens when the fun stops. What about those in-between times, when all the fun is gone and yet, for some reason, we’re still playing? Ask what it means to toy with a person, an idea, or a word. Deal us in, tell us the rules of the game and how to play by them (or not). And by all means, tell us about your actual toys, whether you left them behind in childhood or still cherish them today.
If you’re searching for inspiration, consider some of our favorite “toy” stories, essays, and poems. Frederick Bush’s story “Ralph the Duck” could be about a toy duck, but it also touches on themes of empathy, struggling romance, and loss, to name a few. Dinah Lenney’s essay “The General’s Table” examines tables, especially one used as a play pretend stage, to count the ways we can and cannot know our family. Mary M. Brown’s poem “Classic Toy” asks how a little green army man can engender a commentary on soldiers at war.
PARAMETERS
For our print issues, we read flash stories (1,000 words or less) and full-length stories (up to 5,000 words, approx. 17 pages). Stories longer than 5,000 words should be submitted to our annual IHLR Long Story Issue, not here.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if the story is taken elsewhere the moment that happens.
FREE SUBMIT DAY
The Free Submit Day for the 28.2 TOY ISSUE will be November 1, and you must get the link for that portal on our social media platforms or website. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO USE THIS PORTAL FOR A FREE SUBMISSION, IT WILL CHARGE YOU THE USUAL SUBMISSION FEE. THIS IS NOT THE FREE SUBMIT PORTAL. WE WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT USING THE CORRECT PORTAL.
Submissions are now open for our 2025 themed issue! This year, the theme we’ve chosen is TOYS. Send us your poems that center around toys: Yahtzee, Easy Bake Ovens, Hot Wheels, dolls, trucks, pretend (!) guns, finger paints, marbles, collectibles, family traditions, play, winners, losers, sharing, refusing to share, hand-me-down toys, and more.
Send us work that is playful, that makes a toy of form, line, the readers themselves, and isn’t afraid to rule the playground. Consider what makes a game all in good fun and what happens when the fun stops. What about those in-between times, when all the fun is gone and yet, for some reason, we’re still playing? Ask what it means to toy with a person, an idea, or a word. Deal us in, tell us the rules of the game and how to play by them (or not). And by all means, tell us about your actual toys, whether you left them behind in childhood or still cherish them today.
If you’re searching for inspiration, consider some of our favorite “toy” stories, essays, and poems. Frederick Bush’s story “Ralph the Duck” could be about a toy duck, but it also touches on themes of empathy, struggling romance, and loss, to name a few. Dinah Lenney’s essay “The General’s Table” examines tables, especially one used as a play pretend stage, to count the ways we can and cannot know our family. Mary M. Brown’s poem “Classic Toy” asks how a little green army man can engender a commentary on soldiers at war.
PARAMETERS
We accept 3 to 5 poems in a submission. Please include the poems all in one file, and do not send more than 5 poems. We have published longer poems when we've had space, but poems that are longer than 3 pages will be more difficult to find room for in our pages.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if the poems are taken elsewhere the moment that happens.
FREE SUBMIT DAY
The Free Submit Day for the 28.2 TOY ISSUE will be November 1, and you must get the link for that portal on our social media platforms or website. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO USE THIS PORTAL FOR A FREE SUBMISSION, IT WILL CHARGE YOU THE USUAL SUBMISSION FEE. THIS IS NOT THE FREE SUBMIT PORTAL. WE WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT USING THE CORRECT PORTAL.
Submissions are now open for our 2025 themed issue! This year, the theme we’ve chosen is TOYS. Send us your essays that center around toys: Yahtzee, Easy Bake Ovens, Hot Wheels, dolls, trucks, pretend (!) guns, finger paints, marbles, collectibles, family traditions, play, winners, losers, sharing, refusing to share, hand-me-down toys, and more.
Send us work that is playful, that makes a toy of form, plot, characters, or the readers themselves, and isn’t afraid to rule the playground. Consider what makes a game all in good fun and what happens when the fun stops. What about those in-between times, when all the fun is gone and yet, for some reason, we’re still playing? Ask what it means to toy with a person, an idea, or a word. Deal us in, tell us the rules of the game and how to play by them (or not). And by all means, tell us about your actual toys, whether you left them behind in childhood or still cherish them today.
If you’re searching for inspiration, consider some of our favorite “toy” stories, essays, and poems. Frederick Bush’s story “Ralph the Duck” could be about a toy duck, but it also touches on themes of empathy, struggling romance, and loss, to name a few. Dinah Lenney’s essay “The General’s Table” examines tables, especially one used as a play pretend stage, to count the ways we can and cannot know our family. Mary M. Brown’s poem “Classic Toy” asks how a little green army man can engender a commentary on soldiers at war.
PARAMETERS
For our print issues, we read flash essays (1,000 words or less) and full-length essays (up to 5,000 words, approx. 17 pages). Essays longer than 5,000 words should be submitted to our annual IHLR Long Story Issue, not here.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if the essay is taken elsewhere the moment that happens.
FREE SUBMIT DAY
The Free Submit Day for the 28.2 TOY ISSUE will be November 1, and you must get the link for that portal on our social media platforms or website. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO USE THIS PORTAL FOR A FREE SUBMISSION, IT WILL CHARGE YOU THE USUAL SUBMISSION FEE. THIS IS NOT THE FREE SUBMIT PORTAL. WE WILL NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT USING THE CORRECT PORTAL.
A subscription to Iron Horse gives you the full IHLR experience--and it saves you money!
A one-year subscription costs only $20, a $10 discount off our regular cover price, and it includes three print issues and three electronic issues. International subscribers will receive electronic copies only of all issues.
A two-year subscription costs only $35, a $25 discount off our regular cover price, and it includes six print issues and six electronic issues. International subscribers will receive electronic copies only of all issues.
Complete the form in order to ensure that you receive your subscription in a timely and accurate fashion.
Thank you for supporting IHLR, our contributors, and the literary arts. Without subscribers, we wouldn't exist!
Thank you for supporting IHLR, our contributors, and the literary arts by purchasing an issue of Iron Horse. We appreciate it!
Readers in the United States will receive hard copies of the issue(s) they purchase. International readers will receive electronic copies only.
Make sure you complete the order form as well as provide your billing information.
If you want to buy a chapbook, please exit this form, return to our Submittable page, and find the correct link for chapbook purchases.
If you are looking for our current/past electronic issues, those are available for free download at https://issuu.com/ironhorsereview.
Use this link to purchase any of our winning chapbooks:
- Doug Emory's The Topography of Isolation--our most recent chapbook, a collection of stories about mountaineers and climbing.
- Maxwell Suzuki's Bust of an Athlete--a collection of poems.
- Shuly Xóchitl Cawood's What The Fortune Tell Would Have Said--a collection of flash essays about love and second chances.
- Roseanna Alice Boswell's Imitating Light--a collection of poems.
- Brigitte Lewis's Origin Stories--a collection of stories that reconsider the domestic lives of Biblical couples: Adam and Eve, Lot and Edith, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, and Adam and Lilith (Adam's second wife).
- Freda Epum's Entryways into Memories That Might Assemble Me--a collection of flash essays on popular culture, depression, identity, and racism in America.
- Jed Myers's Dark Channels, a collection of poems.
- Christopher Lowe's A Guest of the Program, a collection of linked stories about college football and recruiting programs and coaches.
- Robin Carstensen's In the Temple of Shining Mercy, a collection of poems.
- Kirk Wisland's Melancholy of Falling Men, a collection of essays on masculinity in America.
- Joe Wilkins's Leviathan, a collection of poems.
- Michael Hemmingson's Still Life with Iguana. Published posthumously, this is a novella about white hat operatives, assassins, and espionage.
- Brandon Davis Jennings's Waiting for the Enemy, a collection of linked stories about American servicemen in the Middle East.
- Hastings Hensel's Control Burn, a collection of poems.
- Eric Neuenfeldt's Fall Ends Tomorrow, a collection of short stories surroundings the lives of cylcists.
- Meagan Ciesla's Me, Them, Us, a novella.
Each chapbook costs $10. Be sure to tell us which one(s) you are ordering.
Due to budget cuts after Covid-19, we can no longer support international postage costs. Readers outside the United States will receive electronic copies only.
Besides submitting work and subscribing to Iron Horse Literary Review, there are three other ways to support our work!
Join us at any one of the following levels:
Friends ($50)
Patrons ($100)
Benefactors ($300)
Thank you so much for your generous encouragement! Without our sponsors, Iron Horse would not be the journal it is today!
Congratulations! We're thrilled that you sent Iron Horse a manuscript we love, and we're excited to publish it. If you would like to buy extra copies of the issue in which your work will appear or has appeared, this is the place to do that using your contributor discount!
Our regular issues cost $5, but contributors pay only $3.50 for the issue in which their work appears. You may purchase one or more copies here.
If you are a chapbook winner and wish to buy additional copies of your chapbook, extra chapbook copies cost the winner $5 each.
You may also purchase a year's subscription here for only $10 (regularly $18).
Thank you again for helping make Iron Horse a literary journal that I'm so very proud of!
Sincerely,
Jill
Leslie Jill Patterson, Editor