The Howland sisters dancing on a picnic table, sharing an ice cream cone, c. 1938 (more)

Dear reader and writer,

Upcoming deadline:

  • The Short Story Award for New Writers (1st place wins $1,500 and publication!) closes August 31. See Writing Guidelines.
  • Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared (nor is scheduled to appear) in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000.
  • The slush pile? When you submit your stories to Glimmer Train… more
Essays in this bulletin:
Johanna Skibsrud: It was not that the world of the imagination was the world I most identified with, but it was the world through which it made the most sense to me to explore and share my experience of this one. (more)
Benjamin Percy: When a reader first picks up a story, they are like a coma patient—fluttering open their eyes in an unfamiliar world, wondering, where am I, when am I, who am I? The writer has an obligation to quickly and efficiently orient. (more)
Micah Nathan: They write, they fail, and they write again. The trick is prying apart the words, the sentences, the paragraphs, and seeing how it all works. Good writers intuitively know this. They certainly don't need me getting in the way. (more)

Results of the May 2012 Short Story Award for New Writers

Winners and finalists have been notified, the Top 25 list is posted, and here are the Honorable Mentions. Our thanks to all entrants for letting us read their work!

  • 1st place: Michael Deagler for "Etymology"
  • 2nd place: Tom Dibblee for "Stuck in a Sixth Floor Penthouse"
  • 3rd place: Andrew Slater for "New Me"
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.