August 1, 2007

Dear Glimmer Train Readers and Writers,

In this issue:
Henry at Antonio Micelli's cabin, 1937
  • Upcoming deadlines and results announcements. The Short Story Award for New Writers is now open!

  • Writer Ron Savage talks about trusting his own vision.

  • Questions for (and answers from!) the editors.

  • Results of a recent survey: Inspiration and discipline from all corners.

Upcoming deadlines and results:

  • The Short Story Award for New Writers
    is open now through September 30!
  • Results of our first Family Matters competition will be finalized September 1.
  • We’re reading, reading, reading your Fiction Open and Very Short Fiction submissions now!

A few questions for (and answers from) the editors:

Q. Do you ever publish 2nd place stories in addition to the 1st place stories?

A. Yes, sometimes we do. We look at each entry for possible publication, and there have been a handful of times when we have published the top three stories, and – in two cases – even the 4th place story. (Likely goes without saying, but there would be no occasion when we would publish a 3rd place story without publishing the 2nd place story.)

Q. I have a piece in mind to send for the October Family Matters competition, but I would prefer to use a pen name. Will that pose a problem?
A. That’s fine. We’ve had a handful of authors over the years who choose to use pen names and it has worked out fine. The only hiccup was in finding the author’s folder in the files, but we cross-reference now so it really isn’t a problem at all.

Q. Silly question, but where’d the train go on your covers? I always looked for it.
A. Starting with our 50th issue, we took the train requirement out of our guidelines for our cover artist to give her more flexibility. (She’s been doing our cover artwork since our second issue.) Now our cover art usually reflects an element of the issue’s opening story.

Survey results: Wow, you have an amazing array of notes by your writing desks! We enjoyed the whole bunch, but we’ll leave you with one of our favorites. More.

Kitty Carlisle Hart, at 95: Hart says that about nine years ago, she decided that she had no time to devote to being irritable or unhappy. “Time is moving fast,” she said.

Enjoy the rest of your summer. Kitty was right.

Looking forward,

Co-editors and sisters

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