IHLR Wants Your Translations!

Iron Horse Literary Review is now accepting translation submissions for the first time! You can submit and find more details on our Submittable page here.

The submission window for all issues in the 2025/2026 production year opens today, October 1 and closes on November 15. Submissions will be free (one submission per translator, please!) on November 1 only, a day intended for writers who cannot otherwise afford to submit.

Send us your translated fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. When you submit, please also indicate for which issue you’d like your work to be considered:

• Our 28.1 Open Issue, featuring essays, poems, and stories on any topic,

• Our 2026 NaPoMo Issue, a special folio for poetry translations,

• Or our 28.2 Toy Issue, featuring essays, poems, and stories related to the themes of "toys" or "play."

Prose translators should submit flash of 1,200 words or less or full-length stories/essays of up to 5,500 words. Poem translators should submit three to five translated poems by the same original author. We will happily accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know right away if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Please keep in mind that the original author’s permission to publish the work is required, as well as their biographical statement for our contributor notes. If space permits, we will also try to publish the original work beside your translation.

Accepted translators will receive our standard honorarium ($100 for full-length prose, $50 for flash prose, and $50 per poem). If the original author is still living, they will receive an honorarium of $50 as well.

Take heed: IHLR will only review 100 translation submissions per year. The submission gate will close if we reach 100 submissions before the final submission date of November 15. We will also only review 30 free submissions before the portal for our November 1 Free Submit day closes. Make sure to submit as soon as you are ready!

Finally, we are pleased to announce that Naveed Alam will serve as Managing Editor for translations. Please email him at ihlr.mail@gmail.com with any questions.

We look forward to reading your translated works!