West Trade Review

"Granger, NY" by Sophia Ross

"Migration Patterns" by Frankie Concepcion

"Transubstantiation, or: dating in two languages" by Sarp Sozdinler

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Poetry

Fiction

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Volume 16 Summer 2025 Collection of Online Exclusives

We’re excited to present the Summer 2025 edition. It features poetry by Shelbi Church, Sarp Sozdinler, Nathan Fako, and Sean Dougherty among others; fiction by Frannkie Concepcion; CNF by Sophia Ross.

Read it now.

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Creative Nonfiction

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Manuscript Queries Open

Iron Oak Editions seeks full-length poetry, as well as fiction, and creative nonfiction manuscript queries

See submission guidelines here.

Need Feedback on a Manuscript?

Meet our Editorial Critique Team and request feedback.

Stay Connected to Our Literary Community. Subscribe to Our Substack Roots & Words

Ashni Math Selected as Grand Prize Winner

of the 704 Prize for Flash Fiction

We are thrilled to announce the results of the second annual 704 Prize for Flash Fiction contest. Ashni Math’s “Monsoon Worms” was selected by Maggie Armstrong as the winner of the $704 prize. Ashni’s story will appear in the spring 2026 spring print edition. Dawn Miller’s “Shark Boy” was selected as an honorable mention.

Details here.

Trill: Poems That Resonate

A New Poem Each Week

We are looking for poems that perform Olympic feats with language that leave a reader in wonder while still referring back to the basic things that make us human. We want powerful imagery and enjoy the juxtaposition of images in interesting and unexpected ways Look for a new theme each month and a new poem published on our website each week.

Click here for details and the list of upcoming themes.

September's theme: Impermanence

Roots and Words: Essays on the Creative Life

We are looking for nonfiction essays that explore creative life expansively conceived (broader than only literary).

We are seeking personal essays exploring creative practice, reading practice, engagement with literature, support for the literary or creative life, hopes/desires/goals for the arts and creative life, experiences with authors or creative figures, arts community involvement, etc.

Submission Open Year-Round.

Details here.

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A Brand New Word in the End Drops Out: Personal Stories of Mental Health and Mental Wellness

Final Reading Period: August 15-October 15

The editors of West Trade Review seek creative nonfiction that engages with the ideas of mental health and mental wellness.

Details here.

Karen Sherk Chio, Associate Poetry Editor, recently spoke to Sara Daniele Rivera, author of The Blue Mimes (Graywolf, 2024).

“My main hope for this book was that, in holding my grief, it might meet someone else in theirs.” - Rivera

Read the full interview here.

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Join Our Team

Michael Harper, Associate Prose Editor, recently spoke to CMarie Furhman, author of Salmon Weather: Writing from the Land of No Return (Columbus State University Press, 2025)

“There is a language that Nature uses, from the way wind moves the leaves of the alder to the hundred ways a river speaks, that has changed my own language from line length to lyricalness.” - Furhman

Read the full interview here.

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SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SUBSTACK

We're happy to announce Roots & Words, the new Substack from Iron Oak Editions and West Trade Review. We’re so excited about this new platform and all the new developments for the journal and the press that are on the horizon.

Get access to our free monthly newsletter as well as the exclusive content for monthly and annual subscribers like new weekly poems, new essays that explore creativity and the creative life, weekly generative creative writing prompts, and live conversations (craft talks, book club discussions, etc.).

Details here.

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