2026 NaPoMo (Poetry Only)
Ends on
NOTE: If you are looking for the free submit day for our NaPoMo issue, this is NOT it. If you use this link, it will charge you the regular submission fee, and we will not refund your money. To acceess the free link, check our website or our social media pages for the free link on October 1. It will be open and close on October 1.
Time to Submit to the IHLR NaPoMo Issue!
It's been 13 years since we started publishing an annual issue dedicated to National Poetry Month! This is one of our most popular issues, and we always combine new voices with some established champions. Each fall, when we begin hunting the poems we will include, we're excited to see what poets have been working on over the summer.
Our annual NaPoMo issue is now released electronically, via ISSUU, which means anyone can download and read it for free and so our contributors' works will reach a wider audience. Secondly, we're going to be more selective. Instead of 25 poems, we will only be selecting the very best 11 poems: one winner and ten finalists--much like our annual PhotoFinish issue. The issue will be presented in full color, and each manuscript will have its own artwork.
The entrance fee is now $15, which includes a year's subscription for print issues. Plus, while the ten finalists receive our standard honorarium for poems ($50 per poem), the winner will receive $1,000. Two runners-up receive $150 and $100 each. And the remaining finalists receive $50.
Send up to five poems in ONE file.
Do NOT include your cover letter materials in the file with your poems. Simply paste it into the Cover Letter box on the submission form.
Do NOT include your name and address on the manuscript.
Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualified.
Once we receive 300 submissions (if we receive that many), we will close the gate. Otherwise, we simply cannot read the submissions in a timely fashion or complete our selection process for other issues.
Geffrey Davis, our Poetry Editor, will judge.
NOTE: Writers who live outside the United States are encouraged to submit their work, but their entrance fee will result in an electronic subscription--all of our usual electronic issues (three a year) plus electronic versions of our print issues (three a year). Iron Horse can simply no longer afford to ship subscriptions outside the United States.