FAMILY MATTERS guidelines

We are looking for stories about families of all configurations.
It's fine to draw heavily on real life experiences, but the work must read like fiction
and all stories accepted for publication will be presented as fiction.*

Maximum word count: 12,000. Any shorter lengths are welcome.

Held just twice a year: Open to submissions in APRIL and OCTOBER.

  Next deadline: October 31.

Winners and finalists will be officially announced in the July 1 and January 1 bulletins, respectively, and will be contacted directly one week earlier.

Reading fee: $15 per story. Please no more than three submissions per contest.

Prizes:

  • 1st place wins $1,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue.
  • 2nd place wins $500 (or, if accepted for publication, $700 and 10 copies).
  • 3rd place wins $300 (or, if accepted for publication, $700 and 10 copies).

Please make your submissions at Glimmer Train's online submission site. We look forward to reading your work!

* Remember that sticking too tightly to "fact" can limit the larger truth that fiction is able to reveal. Give your story the leeway it needs in order to find its own life. And, if your story is closely related to your actual experience, it is wise to change details that would allow the real-life people to say, Hey, that's me!

 



Glimmer Train has been discovering, publishing, and paying emerging writers since 1990.

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.

Every story published in Glimmer Train is unsolicited.
And every year, we pay out over $50,000 to fiction writers.

Glimmer Train Press, 4763 SW Maplewood, PO Box 80430, Portland, OR 97280-1430 USA
Copyright © 1990-2013 Glimmer Train Press, Inc. All Images Copyright © Glimmer Train Press, Inc.