On the Road: AWP 25

One of the best times of the year for Iron Horse is our journey to the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference. We get to see friends, fellow editors, submitters, and all of our contributors. It’s so wonderful for IHLR authors to drop by our booth at the Book Fair and visit about their work in our pages, the issues, how much they love the covers. And there are countless writers who drop by and let us know how much they appreciate our rejection letters, which always include specific feedback, and many writers tell us how our comments helped them revise and place their poems, stories, and essays elsewhere. These are the moments I love the most about AWP.

This year, in particular, we were so thankful for all the people who dropped by and wished us well and success after our rough Fall 2025 semester. And, of course, there's a lot of commiserating going on right now: rage-sharing, fear, solidarity, and backbone--writers are looking out for one another and the First Amendment, among so many other concerns.

Though we work long hours at the Book Fair, we did attend the Texas Tech University reception and had the opportunity to attend the off-site reading featuring writers from Fourth Genre, Riverteeth, Hippocampus Magazine, and under the gum tree. Such terrific writers—a range, both established and new, memoir and research, and the most welcoming crowd I see at off-site readings each year. I myself had a chance, on the last day, to slip away from our booth and listen to a panel on flash fiction that featured Kim Culbertson, Grant Faulkner, Darien Hsu Gee, Britta Stromeyer, and Ran Walker. They provided insightful tips for both teaching and writing flash narratives, and I walked away feeling lucky that I’d had the chance to attend. And: I walked away with a new list of books to add to my summer #TBR—books I can’t wait to read. It was the best an AWP panel can be!

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to say hello! We’ll see you next year in Baltimore!

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Leslie Jill Patterson is the founding editor of Iron Horse Literary Review. Her nonfiction and fiction have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including, most recently, Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, Riverteeth, and Pushcart XLIX (2025). She has edited IHLR since its inception in 1999.