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SmokeLong Quarterly

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Smoking with Christopher Battle

(Read the Story) June 15, 2007

Christopher Battle

"Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe" by Vincent Van Gogh

An isopod menagerie. Name, if you can, five dreams weirder than that one.

An isopod coterie, an isopod abagerie, an isopod boulangerie, an isopod gerbiterrie, and dreams about contact paper.

How did you come to know cymothoa exigua?

A story about parasites on This American Life.

What do you miss about Texas?

Mexican food.

What’s going on at the Universitaet van Amsterdam, besides frequent trips to the red light district and to the local Starbucks hash bar?

Mostly string theory.

The titles of the stories in this issue wowed me and got me thinking about the value of the great title. What are some great titles—for novels, stories, movies, albums, CDs, and the like? And what is the worst title you’ve ever encountered?

Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death is a pretty bad title. Or maybe it’s a good title. I’m not sure. I think that Gottes Werk & Teufels Beitrag is a very good translation of the title The Cider House Rules.

About the Author

Christopher Battle is from Texas but is currently working on a Masters at the Universitaet van Amsterdam. He’s had stories published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Storyglossia, edificeWRECKED, Thieves Jargon, and Outsider Ink.

About the Artist

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.

This interview appeared in Issue Seventeen of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Seventeen
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Deadline November 15th!

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The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatically nominated for Best Small Fictions and any other prize we deem appropriate. In addition, we will pay the grand prize winner $1000. Second place: $500. Third place $300. Finalists: $100. All finalists and placers will be published in the December ’25 issue of SmokeLong.

Previously published as well as previously unpublished work will be considered.