SmokeLong Quarterly

As our managing editor, Christopher Allen keeps the submission queue neat and tidy and helps ensure that writers receive timely responses on their submissions. He is also the creator of SmokeLong’s Global Flash Series that promotes non-Anglo languages in flash fiction. Christopher’s book Other Household Toxins was just published by Matter Press, and he’s giving away a copy of the book to the writer whose story he selects this week. Read more about it and him below.

You’ve read thousands of submissions for SmokeLong Quarterly. What are some dealbreakers that make you stop reading?

Unpopular opinion alert: I think dealbreakers exist–interminable scene-setting, throwaway dialogue, loose prose that doesn’t sound like flash fiction–but maybe it’s better to turn this question around to “What keeps you reading?”

Sentences that tear me apart with their beauty, poignancy, newness. If the first three or four sentences of the story are stunning, they’re like a magnet to me. I think most readers are helpless at this point. They have to keep reading.

What sort of a story would you like to see in the queue this week?

I love stories that have lots of layers to explore. I love stories that make me think about a situation I’ve never thought about before. I also love stories that challenge the notion of story. Surprise me. I will say, though, if you think you have a story that will blow my mind, maybe you’ll want to wait and enter it in our 15^th-anniversary competition. Submissions open February 5.

The debut of your flash fiction collection Other Household Toxins (Matter Press) was last week, and you’re giving a copy to the writer whose story you choose this week. Can you tell us a little about the collection?

Thank you, Shasta. I’m so happy to say the collection is now available. It’s an eclectic grouping of 48 stories from the last 10 years. Each of these stories is near to my heart for one reason or another. I hope readers like them. They’re mostly about death and bad fathers—so the entertainment factor is covered.

Since we had to edit the blurbs a bit to fit on the back cover, I’ve been sharing them on social media in their entirety. I appreciate so much Kathy Fish, Robert Vaughan, Sara Lippmann, and Michelle Elvy for taking the time to read and comment on the collection. Here’s what Michelle Elvy, editor of Flash Frontier and assistant editor (international) for The Best Small Fictions had to say:

“A book of men and women who are not afraid to be who they are. Fathers and sons, mothers and sisters and questionable friends. In Christopher Allen’s hands, flash fiction becomes a gentle means of revealing knotted realities. From broke-down to disoriented to triumphant to absurd, people in these stories reveal glimpses of our own humanity. At the intersection of hard-won truths and laugh-out-loud fiction, presented in Allen’s inimitable style, this is a powerful collection.”

See, there are some laughs. Lots of death. Lots of broken and toxic relationships. But also laughs. I promise.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a story I’ve been trying to tell for two decades. In its current incarnation, it’s a group of linked short stories. I’m sure I’ll be done soon. Just give me twenty more years.