We are two sisters who love reading. In 1990—because we'd just come out of a successful software company and had the time and money to do work we loved—we were able to start Glimmer Train.

This was not a natural career path for us: Susan had studied language and linguistics; I majored in psychology. But we did have these things in our favor: we came from a family of readers and we loved working together.

These are the things we hoped to do:
  • Publish literary short stories that were emotionally significant. We knew that at its best, a story could add depth and breadth to real life, and those were the stories we wanted to print.
  • Present stories in a handsome physical publication that people would keep, giving the stories the long lives and future readings they deserved.
  • Keep a keen eye out for new voices, favoring pieces by emerging writers.
  • Permanently have a no-reading-fee category (our "standard" category) so no writer would be prevented from making submissions because of finances.
  • Pay writers well for stories we accepted for publication. (In a year's time now, we pay over $45,000 to writers, nearly a third of that to emerging writers.)

At the beginning, we imagined it might be possible to break even eventually. There's no sign of that these twenty years later. Competition fees do help, especially in making the larger payments that go to competition winners. Subscriptions help a LOT. We certainly encourage and appreciate your support in that regard.

People often ask why we call it Glimmer Train. We'd sat down one afternoon over pizza and beer, wondering what we might name the magazine, and we started talking about our lives as we do, and thought how crazy it was that we were embarking on such an adventure. We'd certainly never anticipated it, though in retrospect we could see that there had been glimmers of it. And, despite not knowing where, exactly, we were going or how we'd get there, we were going full steam ahead.

Writers submit nearly 40,000 stories a year these days, mostly standard submissions, and—thankfully—nearly everyone submits via our online system, saving trees, postage, and wondering about delivery. Susan and I read all online submissions ourselves, and we do it seven days a week. Pretty much heaven for two sisters who love to read.

Warm regards to you from us both. -linda


Every story we publish is unsolicited, and 86% of the stories we accepted last year came to us directly from the writer.
That's exactly how we like it.

One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train Stories 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.

Glimmer Train Press, 4763 SW Maplewood, PO Box 80430, Portland, OR 97280-1430 USA
Copyright © 1990-2012 Glimmer Train Press, Inc. All Images Copyright © Glimmer Train Press, Inc.