Behind the Editor’s Desk

With the new issue of Iron Horse Literary Review comes two brand new columns. “In the Saddle” will give a sneak peak into the habits and writing rituals of an author that the magazine editors admire. Since it is the first installment of the column, the editors of Iron Horse decided to go first. To the left is a photo of the editors’ desk, labeled and commented on to the right. While some of the comments are insightful (“Once we accept a manuscript, everyone in the office . . . spends a little alone-time with the piece, copy-editing closely and massaging the writing into its best possible shape.”), other comments are playful: “We complain about our office being windowless. Some folks say, ‘Even if you had a window, you’d just be looking out at a brick wall.’ So we hung a photograph of a brick wall, by Marcus J. Weekley.”

In “Bits & Pieces,” Leslie Jill Patterson talks about how Duotrope has wrongly listed Iron Horse as one of “The Slothful” journals, taking around a year to respond to submissions. After crunching numbers on their own, they showed that their average response time is actually more like one to two months. “For complaining and pointing out that what Duotrope is doing might actually be libelous, was certainly unethical, Iron Horse was booted from their Web site,” she writes. “Fine. I like being a rebel. Let’s see if we can set this thing on fire.” She says that more news about this will be posted on their website and social media sites.

The rest of the issue includes new writing from Carrie Shipers, Charles Hughes, Juan Morales, Abby Geni, Asha Falcon, Mary Jo Melone, and more.