Cover Reveal! September 15th! Issue 89 of SmokeLong Quarterly! Ten killer flash by ten amazing writers. And we're thrilled to feature new CNF by Aimee Bender, our first featured author in the SmokeLong Master Series. Cover art by Mario Loprete.

I'll just leave this here. The rubber duckies are watching.

Thank you, @kplumhoff.bsky.social for these BEAUTIFUL tiny gin and tonic cups! They are stunning.

Our competitions always introduce us to new talent. Chi Pham's story "Man Spelt Backwards" is the author's first published story. We are THRILLED to be the first. And we have nominated the story for PEN America's Robert J. Dau Short Story Award for Emerging Writers. @seaheye.bsky.social‬

Novelists, don't miss this! August 2! www.smokelong.com/product/comp...

"The makeup ritual is both self-flagellation and self-creation because those can be the same gesture...It’s violent work of daily erasure and reconstruction, but becoming yourself sometimes requires destroying what you were." Chi Pham (2nd place in The Smokey 2025): www.smokelong.com/interviews/s...

We're sponsoring The SmokeLong Quarterly Trans Writer Fellowship and Residency in cooperation with @sundresspub.bsky.social and you can find out more here... www.sundresspublications.com/safta/reside...

Looking for a supportive, energetic writing community? Do you write flash? The next starting date for SmokeLong Fitness is August first. Book anytime before July 31st to start August 1st. www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi...

This challenge starts June 25th. Read the archives of a favorite flash journal and get your name in the hat to win $400. www.smokelong.com/the-archive-...

Good morning, US and Western time zones! Issue 88 of SmokeLong Quarterly, featuring the finalists and winners of the SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2025, is now LIVE. www.smokelong.com/issue-eighty...

For our readers in the UK and eastward (and night owls in the US), our special competition issue is live! The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction! www.smokelong.com/issue-eighty...

@sfmontgomery.bsky.social wrote a 🔥 flash cnf collection and I had the honour of reviewing it for @smokelong.bsky.social (thanks @erinvachon.bsky.social for bonza editorial support). Read my review and read this collection now. It’s so important 🧡 www.smokelong.com/dear-sarah-f...

A lot of SmokeLong Fitness trousers are here. :)

"Can you give helpful and encouraging feedback? Are you able to remain calm and polite? Do you need some friendly warmth and support?" Frances Gapper, long-listee for the SmokeLong Workshop Prize 2024, on peer-review workshopping. www.smokelong.com/an-interview...

Having trouble with your novel? www.smokelong.com/product/kick...

Congratulations, Glenn!

Congratulations, Sara!

Congratulations, Mizuki!

The results are in! The winners of The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2025 are... www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

COVER REVEAL! Here’s the gorgeous cover for Issue 88, with all the names of The Smokey 2025 winners and finalists whose work will appear in it. Out next Monday. Art by Mia Broecke ⭐️

If you haven't read @dawnsteffler.bsky.social you don't know what you're missing. I pulled together a whack of favourites in a post, including a few from a flash-fiction novel she's working on about parenting a transgender teenager. Gorgeous, devastating and unforgettable stuff. Links here:

I had so much fun talking with Tim and Art from @tiffininnwrites.bsky.social. Check out the podcast! Shout outs to @smokelong.bsky.social & @notquitewrite.com & @mattkendrick.bsky.social & @havehashad.com and so many others. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Read what Dawn Tasaka Steffler @dawnsteffler.bsky.social has to say about workshopping in her interview for her two stories that made the SmokeLong Workshop Prize long list... www.smokelong.com/an-interview...

Announcing the outrageously good shortlist for The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2025, aka The Smokey. Please feel free to celebrate but please do not identify your story as judging is still in progress. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

Micro vs. Prose Poem with Erin Vachon on June 1st! Book A SmokeLong Summer 25 or SmokeLong Fitness before May 23rd and all the events of A SmokeLong Summer 25 are included. Or book separately. www.smokelong.com/product/micr...

So many familiar names on the Best Small Fictions list this year! Congratulations to everyone, especially SmokeLong Fitness trousers! And congratulations to @aniking.bsky.social and Ekpenyong Kosisochukwu Collins for their SmokeLong stories! altcurrentpress.com/best-small-f...

"What Would The Aliens Think" by Ekpenyong Kosisochukwu Collins was published in the September 2024 issue of SmokeLong and appears in this year's Best Small Fictions 🎉. Story and author's audio here: www.smokelong.com/stories/what...

"Family Night" by @aniking.bsky.social is included in this year's Best Small Fictions and was the winner of the 2024 Fiction Prize of A SmokeLong Summer* 🎉 Read it AND hear Ani's audio here: www.smokelong.com/stories/fami... *(about a day left to sign up for A SmokeLong Summer 2025, just saying...)

Delighted to see SLQ stories by Ani King and Ekpenyong Kosisochukwu Collins in this year's Best Small Fictions @altcurrent.bsky.social, alongside SLQ Fellow Belinda Rowe, some of our editors, and a bunch of SmokeLong Fitness members (aka Trousers). Stories in this thread. Congratulations, everyone!

Big thanks to @smokelong.bsky.social for longlisting two of my 2024 publications in the SmokeLong Workshop Prize. And extra thanks to @christopherallen.bsky.social for the workshop prompts that inspired those stories. I love how a good prompt can grow one's writing in exciting ways. 🙏❤️ #FlashFiction

My mother has published a book! Please swing by YouTube, watch her interview, and congratulate her. I'm sure she'd be thrilled to get some support. She's 82! youtu.be/TJZqgd4n4Xg?...

Book A SmokeLong Summer 25 by May 23rd! Opening event on May 24th! youtu.be/jgXz0X01g18?...

AS WELL AS all the workshop generative and craft task, live webinars, open mic parties, panels, we have COMPETITIONS for flash, narrative poetry, novel extract and NIF with prizes including manuscript consultations, cash, and publication on offer! www.smokelong.com/a-smokelong-...

Please help us celebrate the Long List for the 2025 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey)! www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

We have 14 places left for external participants! Write with us this summer. It's going to be the biggest SmokeLong party yet. www.smokelong.com/a-smokelong-...

Welcome, Dawn!

This week's SmokeLong Workshop Prize Long List interview celebrates Sara Hills' success with the Fitness "Sprint Challenges" last year, which resulted in two publications, one of which won the Bath Flash Fiction Award! www.smokelong.com/an-interview... @sarahillswrites.bsky.social

Thank you for sharing my story, Kelly!

IT’S TRUE. Join our online workshop community, SmokeLong Fitness, before May 23 and the giant, joyous annual flash-writing party that is A SmokeLong Summer is included 😎☀️🌞🌻⛱️ www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi... www.smokelong.com/a-smokelong-...

This week on the blog, SmokeLong Workshop Prize Long-Listee Savera Zachariah talks about the March Micro Marathon workshop that sparked her story published in @bendinggenres.bsky.social, "952 Ways to Kill Your Daughter"(story here:) bendinggenres.com/952-ways-to-... www.smokelong.com/an-interview...

PSA! We're open for our "Dark Fantasy and Psychological Thriller" call for submissions. We're getting a lot of submissions that aren't dark fantasy and/or psychological thriller. We're looking for the best flash narratives in this genre, paying $300 and nominating for The Shirley Jackson Award.

"My mother taught me patience, too. Punching and patience." Haley Sim is our featured author this week. www.smokelong.com/interviews/s...

Aww. Sign-up time for A SmokeLong Summer is, by the way, right now: www.smokelong.com/a-smokelong-...

Reopening to submissions. We pay up to $150 for stories published from the general submissions queue, and $300 for the special Dark Fantasy and Psychological Thriller call, from which we will also be nominating for the Shirley Jackson Award www.smokelong.com/reopening-ge...

Three-hour warning! Get your work in. Deadline: Midnight ET! www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...

You can count the hours left on one hand now. Five. There’s five of them. Really really really not many.

SIX HOURS LEFTTTT

8 HOURS. Our editors are poised to read your story. We work fast because there are a lot of us and we are dedicated. At least two editors will read your story, and if it makes it to the second round, up to 9 of us will read and discuss it. That's a lot of love for your work. Award issue out in June.