Feeling isolated? Craving community? It's sign-up time to begin SmokeLong Fitness in October. Our community workshop of around 200 passionate writers from around the world is an honest, supportive group of talented and adorable people. Come write with us. #notacult www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi...

"Lara eats chocolate cake again when the man she loves brings it to her after his wife has gone into town to run errands." @kellypedro.bsky.social in @tahomareview.bsky.social tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/p...

Announcing our nominations for the inaugural Monarch Queer Literary Awards! @monarch.gay @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @seaheye.bsky.social, Sam Mainz, @jjpena.bsky.social, @allisonfieldbell.bsky.social, and C Ray Borck

"Because when you reveal in group that your stepfather denies everything and your mom believes him, Piper nods like she knows." What a gem by @dawnsteffler.bsky.social in @fictivedream.bsky.social. fictivedream.com/2025/09/08/m...

SO proud to be part of @reckonreview.bsky.social with this CNF #FlashFiction piece, which I wrote as part of @smokelong.bsky.social Fitness. It begins: "Maybe parallel universe me was born without a cleft palate. Maybe her philtrum is intact..." Read more: reckonreview.com/maybe-parall...

Book giveaway!!! I just got my author copies of SALTCROP and I’m giving two away! Sign up for my newsletter before Friday 9/5/25, 11AM EST for a chance to win! More details 🧵

New micro out today, which began as part of @smokelong.bsky.social Fitness. Thank you so much!

PSA! We need to get September new members in today so that everyone has the chance to become familiar with the workshop site before the first September writing task (goes live on Sept 1st). Write with us. We are nice. www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi...

"you say, it’s minus 4 outside and there is only one glove, and the smallest says she needs two bunches not one and so I give everyone a banana and carry her kicking into the car" I feel so seen in this @francesorrok.bsky.social micro in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/have-you-see...

Lara shakes her head slightly, and the woman’s hair becomes wild, electrified. “Then I need you to leave,” the woman says. “I can’t. My life is here.” The woman laughs, crests a hand over her eyes. “What life?” @kellypedro.bsky.social in @tahomareview.bsky.social !!

Thinking about Joy Williams’ essential attributes of a short story today

"...the time of the mind is a knife and it chops the world in livable slices..." Read Abhinav's excellent flash CNF, "Solo" in @tahomareview.bsky.social. tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/s... #FlashCNF

Thanks to @tahomareview.bsky.social for publishing my flash, "Preserves." Written in a 2023 @smokelong.bsky.social workshop, it's since gone through many changes. Thanks to workshop mates, and Steve Himmer @necessaryfiction.com who offered such kind feedback. tahomaliteraryreview.com/selections/p...

We're reading "Preserves," a terrific flash fiction by @kellypedro.bsky.social at @tahomareview.bsky.social

We're collecting some info for future projects. If you've participated in a SmokeLong workshop (and maybe even if you haven't), please take a few minutes and reply to our survey. It's anonymous. fx4n25ehm8e.typeform.com/to/A78qM4SM

Being a SmokeLong Fellow in 2024 changed everything for me. Get support and feedback from the best flash editors around — and more importantly, you get to read the queue, which is such an incredible learning experience! Happy to answer questions.

"I know this is also his way of telling me the truth. That when he was a boy he lost friends, but translating Morse code while serving as a soldier, he was also likely the reason others did too." Beautiful @kellypedro.bsky.social @jmwwjournal.bsky.social jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/f...

"Inside the greenhouse, smoke catches in the back of my throat, and for a second I think there must be a fire smoldering somewhere" Great piece by @kellypedro.bsky.social in @jmwwjournal.bsky.social, wonderfully evoking character and relationship: jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/f...

It's hard to overstate how much I have learned from @smokelong.bsky.social workshops. The first course I ever took in CNF a few years ago was an absolute epiphany and many of the stories in my collection emerged from Fitness prompts. Sign up!!

No matter what Trump’s ambassador says, Canadians aren’t “mean and nasty” for choosing to buy Canadian and travel locally. We’re taking a stand against Trump’s threats to our sovereignty and standing on our own two feet. Let's hold the line.

It's sign-up time to begin Fitness on August 1st! If you're a flash or flash-adjacent writer passionate about workshopping, come write with us! www.smokelong.com/smokelong-fi...

Congratulations to former SmokeLong contributor Tim Fitts on his new novel, The People's Island! spuytenduyvil.net/The-Peoples-...

PSA! We're now reading for the Dec issue and are considering leaving the Dark Fantasy/Psychological Thriller call open. We aren't seeing what we're seeking. We'd love to see stories that trouble us but also thrill us at the line level, as flash should do. Send us something amazing and terrifying.

I was in a thesis defence yesterday where @drkarenlord.bsky.social shared Roger Robinson's "A Portable Paradise" and—oaf— do yourself a favour and read it. I finished an emotional writing session today and have been reading it since. Poetry is such a salve. poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/a-port...

If you're writing longform, come write with Sherrie Flick on August 2! www.smokelong.com/product/comp...

The SmokeLong Flash Masterclass with Christopher Allen is available now as a webinar three-pack! Or book SmokeLong Fitness by September 1st, and we'll send you these free of charge. www.smokelong.com/product/smok...

One last #ArchiveChallenge post because Kathryn McMahon's "It Would Not Have Our Bones" in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is SO GOOD. We've talked about tension in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer. This is a great example. I love the slow build and the final release. citronreview.com/2017/04/17/i...

Thanks @smokelong.bsky.social for challenging us to read archive stories in flash lit mags that are at least 10 years old. I read @thecitronreview.bsky.social for the past 2 weeks and encourage everyone to check them out. Thanks also to The Citron Review for making their archives available!

I love what Abigail Hancher does in "The Water Boils" from Summer 2017 in @thecitronreview.bsky.social. The cadence and imagery of swimming and strokes and overlaying that to tell a larger story about rape is haunting. citronreview.com/2017/06/22/t... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge

We've explored deep metaphors in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer. A great example: "Salted Wound" by Mandy Shunnarah in @thecitronreview.bsky.social from 2017. The crumbling relationship, the Dead Sea, the precarity of geography, all done so well. citronreview.com/2017/10/02/s... #ArchiveChallenge

"9/32" by Danielle Hale in @thecitronreview.bsky.social drew me in with: "Someday, I will use nine months to grow another body." But it's the repetition at the end and the emotional echo that it creates that gives this piece its power. citronreview.com/2017/06/22/9... @smokelong.bsky.social

Who says flash can't travel large expanses of time and place? Lillian Kwok breaks all the "rules" in "Córdoba, Argentina" in @thecitronreview.bsky.social — multiple characters, spans of time. But she handles it so well. citronreview.com/2017/06/22/c... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge

Sometimes we think flash has to start fast and never let up, but I love what Thomas Kearnes does in "This House Is Not A Home" from 2016 @thecitronreview.bsky.social. The slow reveal of the story builds such tension. So good. citronreview.com/2016/10/03/t... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge

Reading Babak Lakghomi's 2016 flash "The Closet-Woman" in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is like watching someone carefully glue a shattered mug back together. The precision of language is breathtaking. #ArchiveChallenge @smokelong.bsky.social

The strength of this powerful 2015 flash by Joel Morris in @thecitronreview.bsky.social rests in what ISN'T being said. Such a great example of how flash can live in the white space of a story. @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge #WritingSky #FlashFiction citronreview.com/2015/06/01/w...

Oh goody, I just got a notice that an AI reviewed my 2019 graduate thesis.

Thank you, @brettpribble.bsky.social, for publishing my flash "An Idea Declared Itself Between Us" in Ghost Parachute! ghostparachute.com/issue/july-2...

It's that magic time, novelists + novella-ists! You've got 2mos to send our beloved + well-practiced novel/novella reading team your >100pg books: call it a novella, call it a novel, but we hope you call it READY TO SEND before Sept 1 because we want to read it! splitlippress.submittable.com/submit

"My teeth are clenched again, and I wonder how much pressure enamel can take before pulverizing." Don't miss this incredible piece (with an incredible last line) by @danbillyc.bsky.social in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social! pitheadchapel.com/roar/ #WritingSky #FlashFiction

"I try not to stare at his teeth: gray, chipped, missing. Dark, square caves in his mouth." Such a delicate and haunting piece by @claudiamonpere.bsky.social in @lostballoon.bsky.social. #WritingSky #FlashFiction

"Seven pennies, seven dandelions, seven is nothing to me." The repeating taste/smell of iron (copper, pennies, brown, blood) in "Blood Bath," a 2015 CNF flash in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is so well done. citronreview.com/2015/03/15/b... @smokelong.bsky.social #ArchiveChallenge

I love the wordplay in this 2015 micro, "Still Life" by Lane Osborne in @thecitronreview.bsky.social. That ending is — oaf — a gut punch. citronreview.com/2015/09/15/s... As an aside, thanks to @smokelong.bsky.social's #ArchiveChallenge, my timeline is all sunny lemons! An extra bonus.

Micro fiction can be such a challenge. How do you tell a big story in a few words? For a stellar example, read "2:12 a.m.", a haunting, lyrical piece by Dallas Woodburn in @thecitronreview.bsky.social as part of @smokelong.bsky.social's #ArchiveChallenge

"But who hasn’t eased their heart by drinking a bit of death each day." This 2012 flash by Mario J. Gonzales in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is such a gut punch. A difficult topic (a drug overdose) so delicately handled. An emotional stunner. citronreview.com/2012/12/15/d... @smokelong.bsky.social

I taught my last flash narratives course Tuesday, and I've loved talking about flash for the last 8 weeks! My students were so open to experimenting and dissecting what makes a flash story. And if what I saw in workshop is a sign, there will be some stellar new flash stories out in the world soon.

I've loved reading @thecitronreview.bsky.social's archives so far. So many gems in there like "Dog Streets" by Joseph Alan Hasinger. I love how stray dogs are used as an extended metaphor (a technique we've looked at in @smokelong.bsky.social Summer!). citronreview.com/2011/06/07/d... #WritingSky

I'm a sucker for stories with indirect speech. What I love about Michael Zapata's flash "Any Sense At All" in @thecitronreview.bsky.social is how the voice is so controlled and we learn so much about the teacher through the narrator. citronreview.com/2010/06/12/a... @smokelong.bsky.social

I'm doing the @smokelong.bsky.social archive challenge somewhat — I won't be online every day in the next two weeks, but it's still fun to read flash! I'm reading The Citron Review and found this gem written by Megan Jones in 2009 WHO WAS 14 at the time. citronreview.com/2009/12/10/h... #WritingSky

And we're off! Start a 2-week deep dive TODAY into a favorite online flash journal older than 10 years and get your name in the hat to win $400! Please share at least 1 flash daily (up to 4) and tag SmokeLong so we see you! Get on it! www.smokelong.com/the-archive-...

If you're not already reading flash fiction, this contest is a great reason to start!