the ihlr chapbook

 

 

For the 2025 Chapbook Competition, we will select a winning collection of poetry.​ The winning manuscript will be published in the Fall of 2025 as a separate issue (Volume 27.3). Full-color cover art will reflect the collection’s content and emphasize its title, not the name of Iron Horse. The published chapbook will look like the single-author book that it is. The winner also receives a $1,000 honorarium and 15 copies.

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guidelines for 2026/prose

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• Prose chapbooks should be either a short collection of three to five stories, a short collection of three to five essays, a short collection of flash fiction, a short collection of flash essays, a novella, a long story told specifically in linked flash, or,a long lyric essay (by lyric, we mean segmented, braided, or in a hermit crab shell).

• We are NOT accepting hybrids or prose poetry.

• The submitted manuscript must be 40 - 56 pages, double-spaced (approx. 10,000 to 20,000 words). Each story/essay/segment must start on a new page. Number the pages.

• Manuscripts must be typed, with one-inch margins and using a 12-point standard font such a Times, Times New Roman, or Garamond.

• The author’s name and contact information must appear on the Submittable form, but it must NOT appear anywhere in or on the manuscript. There should be no footers or headers containing the author's identity.

• Do not include a bio page. Manuscripts with biographical information will be disqualified.

• Do not include acknowledgments of previous publications. Manuscripts including acknowledgments will be disqualified.

• While individual portions of the chapbook may have been published elsewhere, the chapbook as a whole must be previously unpublished.

• We only accept electronic manuscripts, submitted as ONE pdf file, with the entire chapbook in that single file. Do NOT submit essays or stories in individual files.

• Entries failing to meet formatting instructions will be automatically disqualified.

• The $18 entry fee includes a one year's subscription to IHLR.

• Submissions will be accepted between January 15 and March 15.

• ​The winner receives $1,000 and 15 copies of their chapbook. We will respond to all submissions individually, and then we will announce the finalists and the winner on our website--the finalists in late spring; the winner in early summer if not sooner.

• Additional questions should be directed to the editors at ihlr.mail@gmail.com.

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free submit day

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We will accept 25 free submissions on February 15, 2025. On that day, we will open a special gate, revealed on our social media pages (connect with us below) and here on our website. We will accept only one free submission per person (automatically disqualifying subsequent free submission attempts). Once we hit 25 submissions in the free gate, we will close it. Free submissions will not receive a subscription or specific feedback. We offer this opportunity in the hopes of targeting writers who cannot afford to enter otherwise. If you can afford to enter, please do not take one of the 25 available free slots. To submit on February 15 for free (with no subscription or feedback) use the link we post below on February 15.

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submssion gates

 

January 15 to March 15: IHLR Chapbook General Submissions: Submissions currently closed. 

February 15: IHLR Chapbook Free Submissions: Submissions currently closed. 

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results

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We'll announce finalists and the winner here, the finalists in late spring, the winner during the summer.