gates open: ihlr trifecta

Got a long, wild beast of a poem? A story that's not exactly short, not exactly a novella? An essay that needs to sprawl a bit? Here at Iron Horse we publish an annual issue just for these lengthier pieces of creative work. We publish three each time: one poem, one story, and one essay. And our submission gates have just opened for this trifecta issue. So get those marathon manuscripts ready—we're accepting submissions till the end of November.

This is your chance to publish these unruly, rebelliously expansive pieces; work that most other journals won't consider due to space limitations or production constraints. Of course, we also want to see serious craft in these long pieces—techniques that sustain and justify the length, surprising developments in form and content that make us rethink what the long, stand-alone piece can do.

Guidelines: poets should submit a single poem, 10-20 pages long. Prose writers should submit a story or an essay that runs between 20 and 40 pages. The entry fee is $10, which includes a year's subscription. The winners—a poet, a fiction writer, and an essayist—each receive $250. The winning manuscripts will be published in June 2017 as beautifully designed and conveniently shareable e-singles on our website.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the work of our 2016 winners: "The Apparition at Fort Bragg" by Tiffany Higgins​ (poetry), "Collateral Damage" by Kate Norris​ (fiction), and "Grand Avenue" by Sarah Pape (nonfiction). You can read them here.