SmokeLong Quarterly

At long last, our first quarterly issue of the year arrives. Breathe a sigh of relief—we have!

In taking over the day-to-day publishing operations a few months ago, we have been working to maintain the high quality and vision set forth by Dave so many years ago.

While we wish we could say the transition was seamless, it has been somewhat seamy. As a result, our schedule slipped. So this quarterly issue is a double issue, including stories from the past six months—some that you’ve seen before in SmokeLong Weekly (now with interviews added!) and some new, previously unseen stories.

We are crazily excited about this issue, which features 27 brilliant stories from writers we know and love as well as some brand-new SmokeLong contributors. From the poetic ode to waitresses by Steve Almond (solicited by our lovely staff editor Meg Pokrass) to the dark but beautiful tale of a girl-gone-missing by Laura Ellen Scott, we think these stories will worm into your head in the same way they did for us.

Because this is the first issue to include stories from SmokeLong Weekly, we thought we’d say once again that we will continue to publish weekly stories in between quarterly issues. Many of the weekly stories will be chosen by guest editors-though our staff will still be perusing the submissions pile and snatching out our own favorites as well.

In choosing our guest editors, we approach editors of other publications we admire, writers who share (at least somewhat) the SLQ aesthetic, and others in the indie publishing world who we think would be a good fit. They select one story for their given week to publish, and pass on any other worthy contenders to our staff for consideration. We think this system gives SLQ an even more varied style and flavor, and we’ve really enjoyed seeing the stories that our wonderful guest editors have chosen this year.

Some of our guest editors have been extra generous by offering to give away a signed copy of their book to the writer whose story they choose for publication. Tara Masih, editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction, is our guest editor for the week of July 12-18. The writer of the story Tara chooses for publication will also receive a signed copy of Tara’s latest collection of stories published by Press 53, Where the Dog Star Never Glows. In the fall, Pinckney Benedict will be a guest editor for SLQ and has also offered to give his ‘winning’ writer a copy of his Press 53 story collection, Miracle Boy.

Exciting changes, exciting times. Now, go read these fine stories. And let us know what you think.

Thanks for your patience,

Tara Laskowski and Beth Thomas
Senior Editors, SmokeLong Quarterly

July 25, 2010