February 5, 2008

Dear Glimmer Train Readers and Writers,

In this issue:

• Upcoming deadlines, results announcements, and changes. The February Very Short Fiction competition closes February 28.
• Preview the spring issue of Glimmer Train Stories and Writers Ask.
• Erica Johnson Debeljak on getting past safety.
• Well-loved Minnesota writer Carol Bly has died.
• List of latest pieces accepted for publication in Glimmer Train Stories.

• The February Very Short Fiction competition closes February 28.

• Winners of the October Family Matters competition have been notified, and the Top-25 list is posted! (And remember you can always check status of your online submissions by logging in and clicking on My Submissions.)
        1st place: "Blind Spots" by Erica Johnson Debeljak
        2nd place: "The Scream" by Mary Morrissy
        3rd place: "A Handful of Ones" by Eric Scot Tryon

• We shortened submission periods, as you know, in order to speed turnaround, and we decided to accept simultaneous submissions so writers can keep their stories in circulation. We’re happy to report several outcomes:
  
  
  • You’ve been great about notifying us immediately when you’ve had a story accepted elsewhere, but it hasn’t come up often because our turnaround has improved dramatically.
    
    
  • In fact, after four months of monthly competitions, we’ve discovered that the reduced pools are allowing us to complete the judging a little faster so we are further cutting response time by one full month. So, for instance, when you send a story in for the Very Short Fiction competition this month, you’ll know results of that competition by April 30th, just two months after the category closes.
    
    
  • Lastly, though we’re getting fewer submissions to each competition, the quality is soaring, so that we occasionally find ourselves unable to resist publishing 2nd- and sometimes even the 3rd-place winners.

Glimmer Train Stories, spring issue, #66 is out! Here’s what you’ll find inside:

Danielle Lavaque-Manty's "The Safety of Milk"
William Luvaas's "Ashes Rain Down"
Al Sim's "Soledad"
Thomas O'Malley's "Monstrum"
Andrea Cohen's "The Pretty Lady Brand"
Eric Tretheway's "Jefferson Street"
Christopher Bundy's "Walking on the Moon"
Ruth Ozeki Interview by Kyoko Amano
Jay McInerney Interview by Victoria Blake

One of the things I like best about writing fiction is the chance to live another more

We've recently accepted these stories for publication in Glimmer Train Stories (note):

"Bonnie & Clyde in the Backyard" by K.L. Cook
"The Houseguest" by Kim Brooks
"The Widower Garde.n" by Rikki Clark
"A Shell of Blue Luminosity" by Andrew Thomas Scott
"The Scream" by Mary Morrissy
"A Handful of Ones" by Eric Tryon

And this:

We’ve just learned that Carol Bly, whose story, "Therapist" will be published in GT in May, has died of ovarian c.ancer. She was a lovely person as well as a marvelous writer, and will be greatly missed:

I am finding it a curious experience to write fiction in a time so different from the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century, when England's and Russia's and France's and America's most confident stories and novels were written. Back then, authors believed that however rotten H. sapiens might be, the earth itself, at least was safe forever. But now we know the earth is not safe forever, and our species is currently the major villain. Still, despite those two horrible truths, how wonderful life is, and how admirable some people are! We still feel it—enough to make us glad to work away at literature.—Carol Bly

Feel free to forward this bulletin to your writer friends. As you know, the bulletin is free and meant to inform and to promote writers. (We never share your info.) People can sign up for bulletins themselves here. Missed a bulletin? They’re all archived here

Looking forward,

Co-editors and sisters