June 1, 2012

Upcoming deadline:

Elisabeth, away from the city, c 1936
  • The Fiction Open contest will welcome your story submissions through June 30. See Writing Guidelines.
  • The Fiction Open is open to all writers, all subjects and themes. We encourage you to break out of bounds.
  • First place wins $2,500, second place, $1,000, and third place wins $600 or, if also accepted for publication, $700. (All three places were accepted for publication last time.)
  • Most submissions run from 2,000 to 8,000 words, but anywhere from 2,000 - 20,000 word stories are welcome! Reading fee is $19 per story. Please, no more than three submissions per category.
Essays in this bulletin:
Silas Dent Zobal: Fiction is not about what we can say, it's about what we can't. It circles around the subjects that can't be spoken, and, at best, its form circumscribes the negative space where we imagine the unspeakable to sit. (more)
Natalie Bakopoulos: Fiction, I think, creates its own truths, invents its own history, adds to the infinite possibilities of the universe. To write fiction is to both capture and create a history. (more)
Josh Henkin: My graduate students, many of whom are quite talented, are for the most part so afraid of being over the top that they're subtle to the point of obfuscation. (more)

Results of the March 2012 Fiction Open

Winners and finalists have been notified, the Top 25 list is posted, and here are the Honorable Mentions.

  • 1st place: Silas Dent Zobal for "The Hospital"
  • 2nd place: Devin Murphy for "Levi's Recession"
  • 3rd place: Amina Gautier for "Aguanilé"

All three stories have been accepted for publication in Glimmer Train. Our thanks to all entrants for letting us read their work!

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.
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Sisters and Editors
Glimmer Train has been discovering and publishing emerging writers since 1990.
  • Every story published in Glimmer Train is unsolicited. Of the stories accepted last year, 86% came directly from the author.
  • One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train is represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize, New Stories from the Midwest, O. Henry, New Stories from the South, Best of the West, and Best American Short Stories anthologies.