FEBRUARY, 2018—BULLETIN #133

Upcoming deadline:

We're at the mid-point of the first New Writer Award of the year, 1st place $2,500 and publication in Glimmer Train.
Deadline: 2/28.

Heinrich K. Burmeister on campus, 1966 (more)

Open only to emerging writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Previous online submission is fine.)

The 1st-place winner will be published in Glimmer Train and will receive $2,500 and 10 copies of that issue. Second- and 3rd-place win $500/$300, respectively, or, if accepted for publication, $700.

Winners and finalists will be announced in the May bulletin, and contacted directly the previous week.

Most submissions run 1,000 - 4,000 words, but stories as long as 12,000 words are fine. Writing Guidelines

Don't listen to anyone else. It's great to get opinions and advice, but you need to follow the particular private passion or obsession that you have for a story, giving no quarter to anything else. In the end, that's where writers come up with something unique. That's why stories still mean something even in this age—they're distinctive performances, utterly singular and surprising. Follow your passion. Feed your obsessions and in the end that will work best.—Chang-Rae Lee, interviewed by Sarah Anne Johnson

Essays in this bulletin:

Thomas Fox Averill: Given my subject, I researched the political history of the U.S. and Kansas. I learned the names of Lawrence merchants, the history of railroad and dam building, the Unitarian church, the fledgling days of Kansas University. (more)

Aline Ohanesian: The no's don't magically disappear when you become an adult, you just learn to deal with them better. More importantly, I wanted them to know that the no's are what inevitably leads to a glorious yes and then more yeses… (more)

Danielle Lazarin: Though they may appear frantic, a series of scribbled questions aren't signs of confusion or desperation but of sufficient curiosity on my part to propel a story forward. At every stage of my work, questions are my most essential writing tools… (more)

Our thanks to all of you for letting us read your 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 archived here.

Best regards,

Discovering, publishing, and paying emerging writers since 1990.

One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train continues to actively champion emerging writers. The magazine is represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, New Stories from the Midwest, the O. Henry Prize Stories, New Stories from the South, Best of the West, New Stories from the Southwest, Best American Short Stories, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading.