Sept 1 - May 15, every year

Send us your brief responses to immediate current events: prose (800 words or less) and poetry (25 lines or less). We receive only 20 submissions a week and publish the best ones the following week.

​

sept 11 - oct 7, 2019

Every year, during National Poetry Month, Iron Horse releases an issue dedicated to all things poetry. Send us your best poems!

oct 20 - nov 17, 2019

Every fall, Iron Horse accepts submissions for its annual Trifecta, which is your chance to publish those marathon manuscripts most journals won't consider. Poets should submit a single poem, 10-20 pages long. Prose writers should submit a story or essay that runs between 25 and 40 pages. The entry fee is $10, which includes a year's subscription. The winners--a poet, an essayist, and a fiction writer--each receive $250.

jan 3, 2019 - feb 20, 2020

Poems, stories, essays on any topic.

jan 13 - mar 15, 2020

Each year, Iron Horse publishes one issue as a chapbook. This year, we're accepting collections of short fiction or novellas, 40-56 pages. Submissions due by March 1. Winner receives $1,000. 

feb 15 - apr 1, 2020

We're looking for poems, stories, and essays that focus upon meals, feasts, hunger, recipes, sustainable agriculture, food stamps, food deserts, cooking, food porn, last meals, etc! 

Every year on New Year's Eve, we'll publish an e-issue featuring ten short pieces of prose or poetry in response to a photo we post in May. Send us your best flash stories and essays (500 words or less) or your best poems (fifteen lines or shorter). First prize wins $250.