This summer during our third summer-long mega-event extravaganza A SmokeLong Summer 24, we will be getting to know independent publishers a little better. As we’ve been recording interviews with these lovely people over the last few weeks, one thing has become clear: they are all so dedicated and passionate about publishing great work. I can’t wait for you to get to know them better. We now have over 20 publishers participating in the virtual bookfair of A SmokeLong Summer 24. All of these publishers are important in the flash community. From W.W. Norton, the publisher of the seminal flash ant ..read more

Competitions are a constant back and forth of delight and disappointment. None of us takes this lightly. I appreciate so much the care each of our judges has given to the 1134 entries this year. Your comments have been gold, and I’m sure you agree with me that reading for a journal (and a competition) is a masterclass in itself. It’s an enriching experience that I’m grateful for every day. To those of you whose titles remain in this competition, congratulations. We are still discussing your work because art is subjective, we all have varying tastes, and we all have our own opinions about what ..read more

Thank you to everyone who entered this year’s competition. We had 1134 entries, so we, 14 judges from six countries, have been busy. Our decision-making process is similar to our general submissions process: two editors are assigned your work initially. If at least one editor voted maybe this time, your work was sent along to one senior editor. If this editor also voted maybe, your work was assigned to all the senior editors. We have been discussing the top entries for weeks and continue to discuss them as many came in during the last days of the reading period. The list below reflects the top ..read more

How time flies when you’re writing flash. In 2022, SmokeLong launched its first summer-long flash party, and it was an amazing event. So many flash narratives were born, sent out into the world, and published. We still get messages from participants almost every day excited about stories that have found their homes. Then we did it all over again in 2023. Webinars, author readings, panel discussions, open mics, and of course writing tasks three times a week, workshopping in small groups on our dedicated website, and community. Last summer was hot, and this summer looks like it’s going to be eve ..read more

Reviewed by Emily Webber In “Mother, False,” the opening story of Tara Isabel Zambrano’s spectacular new story collection, Ruined a Little When We Are Born, a girl’s body transforms after her mother’s death. Now, she must be the caretaker for her siblings, watch over her father’s grief, and process her mother’s memory. Extra hands and her mother’s words spill forth from the girl’s body. Her mother’s ghost lingers: The girl massages her mother’s scalp—there are dead insects, dried leaves, dirt—as if it’s a little ritual to make her feel at home. Her extra hands swat the flies. Steam from a pot ..read more

We are excited. For decades SmokeLong has teetered on the edge of flash erotica, publishing tasteful, often edgy stories on sexual themes. We’ve never been afraid to go there. In 2024, though, we are going all in…and out. Our new sister journal, SmokeLong In-N-Out, will be the first online sex journal devoted to the briefest, most intimate stories of passion. And we don’t want to delay your gratification one second longer. Get ready for SmokeLong’s answer to the quickie. SmokeLong In-N-Out will consider flash fiction and nonfiction exploring the following themes beginning today April 1, 2024 ..read more

Each year, writers from around the world come together in Bristol, UK to celebrate the art of flash fiction. In this interview I speak to the co-founder of the UK Flash Fiction Festival, Jude Higgins.  _________________________ The UK Flash Fiction Festival is a weekend devoted solely to the form of flash. Tell us about its inception way back when. The first festival was in 2017, so this is the eighth year and there were two years during Covid when there couldn’t be a face to face event. I ran festival days mostly every month online during 2020 and 2021, keeping the festival energy up and ..read more

We are thrilled to be celebrating the fourth biennial SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction. The reading period for this competition is February 1 to April 30. SmokeLong Quarterly will be closed to general submissions during this time though we will remain open for paid feedback submissions. Do you have questions about the competition? Here are a few frequently asked questions answered by Christopher Allen, the publisher and EIC of SmokeLong. Do you have a question that’s not answered below? Send us an email: editor@smokelong.com ________________________   What type of entries are y ..read more

Preconceptions are so hard to dispel, especially when so many people are still out there perpetuating them. The most common, easily Googlable preconception about the flash narrative is that it needs to end in a twist. This might have been true for about 5 minutes in the 90s, but we quickly moved on. The literary flash narrative does not rely on a twist ending. The literary flash narrative ends like a professional platform diver enters the water: perfectly, maybe subtly, assuredly with a gasp from the audience. There are consequences for the diver for under- or overshooting the entry: point red ..read more

Biennially, SmokeLong invites previous SmokeLong workshop participants to enter The SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition (free to enter) when they subsequently publish work begun in a SmokeLong workshop. In 2023, we had 214 entries. You can read the Top Ten entries chosen by Jasmine Sawers HERE; and if you are signed up for The Smokey Winter Fête, you can listen to the finalists read their work on February 17. We are thrilled to announce that Claudia Monpere has won the 2023 competition with “Solar Flare,” published by Atlas and Alice (pages 58-59 of Issue 23 if you’d like to read it first bef ..read more