Glimmer Train offers a number of competitions to encourage new writers an opportunity to get published.
One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train Stories has been represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize, O.Henry, New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best American Short Stories.
This is their announcement for their upcoming competition based on family stories.
Guidelines for the FAMILY MATTERS category:
We are interested in reading your original, unpublished short stories about family!
We don't publish stories for children, I'm sorry.
It's fine to submit more than one story or to submit the same story to different categories.
When we accept a story for publication, we are purchasing first-publication rights. (After we've published it, you can include it in your own collection.)
To make a submission: Please send your work via our new online submission procedure.
It's easy, will save you postage and paper, and is much easier on the environment.
It's easy, will save you postage and paper, and is much easier on the environment.
Just click the Submissions button to get started!
Dates:
The category will be open to submissions for one full month, from the first day through
midnight (Pacific time) of the last day of the month. Results will be posted at www.glimmertrain.org.
The category will be open to submissions for one full month, from the first day through
midnight (Pacific time) of the last day of the month. Results will be posted at www.glimmertrain.org.
April. Results will be posted on June 30.
October. Results will be posted on December 31.
Reading fee:
$15 per story.
Prizes:
1st place wins $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue.
2nd-place: $500
3rd-place:$300
Other considerations:
Open to all writers.
Stories--about family--are specifically invited. Submissions to this category typically run 3,000 to 6,000 words, but can go up to 12,000 words.
This category has stimulated lots of questions about fiction/non-fiction/creative nonfiction, since many people have significant real-life stories they want to write. It seems to us that a substantial proportion of fiction submissions are heavily rooted in actual experience, which is entirely fine with us, but we do want stories to READ like fiction and anything we publish is presented as fiction. (Also, sticking too tightly to "truth" can limit the larger truth that fiction is able to reveal.) I would certainly recommend changing details that would allow the real-life people to say, Hey, that character is--without a doubt--me. I hope that makes sense.
We look forward to reading your work!
If you decide to submit let me know, and certainly let me know if you win!
#genealogy, #family history, #memoirs
