Announcing the First Book Prize 2023 Finalists

We are delighted to announce the finalists of our 2023 First Book Prize contest. Iron Horse Literary Review’s annual Book Prize is an invitation for writers to submit their collection of prose manuscripts, either short fiction or nonfiction. The Iron Horse Prize seeks stories from and about places and people that are often overlooked and underrepresented in contemporary letters, but we have no preferences as to subjects or themes. We hope to publish the winning collection in the summer of 2024 by Texas Tech University Press.

Congratulations to all our finalists!

Finalists:

(Nonfiction)

Ren Cedar Fuller, “Bigger”

Marianne Erhardt, “Lucky Bodies”

(Fiction)

Allison Field Bell, "Bodies of Other Women"

Sean Stewart, "Plain Gods"

Clayton Bradshaw-Mittal, "Soft Goodbyes Through Broken Veils"

Steve Chang, "The Shattered World and Other Kaleidoscopes" 

Katherine Conner, "The Hanged Man"

Lauren Woods, "The Great Grownup Game of Make Believe"