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Glimmer Train

1990-2019 literary magazine

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 21, 2025
Entity authorityQ5569627
Source-derived summary

Glimmer Train was an American short story literary journal. It was published quarterly, accepting works primarily from emerging writers. Stories published in Glimmer Train were listed in The Best American Short Stories, as well as appearing in the Pushcart Prize, The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, and anthologies for New Stories from the Midwest, New Stories from the South, and Best American Short Stories. The journal held 12 short story fiction contests a year, paying out over $50,000 on an annual basis.

Background

Glimmer Train was founded in 1990 by Linda Swanson-Davies and her sister, Susan Burmeister-Brown, in Portland, Oregon. While the journal received over 40,000 submissions per year, only about 40 stories are published (a rate of 0.001, or 1/10 of 1%).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Glimmer Train” as 1990-2019 literary magazine. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Glimmer, Train and 1990-2019 can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1990-2019 literary magazine. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5569627. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Glimmer Train”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Glimmer Train primary sources, Glimmer Train archive and Glimmer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Glimmer Train”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Glimmer Train” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.