SmokeLong Quarterly

I have so much to tell you. We have a banger of an issue to share with you. As usual “we” are a village that spans the global flash community—so many dedicated, talented writers, editors, interviewers, reviewers, readers, and artists. Producing an issue of SmokeLong always relies on the efforts of around 60 people. As SmokeLong continues its mission to foster community, we’re grateful to everyone who supports the journal and its orbital workshop community.

With issue 89 we’re excited to introduce the SmokeLong Master Series, and we’re thrilled to have Aimee Bender in the house as our first author in this biannual series. If you haven’t watched our interview with Aimee on our YouTube channel, swing by and give it a watch. Our next featured author in the SmokeLong Master Series will be the prolific and versatile John Dufresne in March 2026.

SmokeLong, an international journal based in Tennessee, has partnered with Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) to provide a fellowship/residency for a trans writer in east Tennessee. If this is something you or someone you know would benefit from, please check it out HERE. The deadline for applications is February 1, 2026.

We are always looking for experienced workshop leaders to offer 90-minute webinars for our workshop community, SmokeLong Fitness. Going strong since the summer of 2022, the participants of SmokeLong Fitness have collectively reported to us nearly 1000 publications begun in SmokeLong workshops. At the moment, around 200 flash and flash-adjacent writers are exchanging drafts with passion and compassion. If you’re passionate about workshopping, come write with us (book in the SmokeLong shop). If you are an experienced workshop leader with a strong connection to the flash community and a unique perspective on the flash narrative, please check our our guidelines HERE. Our next monthly webinar, “The Art in the Detail: Specificity in Flash,” is on September 27th with Emily Devane (in the shop now).

For issue 89 our editors read around 4200 submissions. This number included 800 submissions in our Dark Fantasy and Psychological Thriller call. Out of these submissions, we found one story, which we will publish in the December issue.

Issue 89 includes two of the winners from the competitions of A SmokeLong Summer 25: Joshua Jones Lofflin’s “On Our Way to the Circus” (flash fiction) and Christina Tudor’s “Judy Blume Did Not Prepare Me for The Apocalypse” (flash CNF). Sara Hills’ “Worm” (narrative poetry) will appear in our December issue. Congratulations to these winners! We also awarded a manuscript consultation to Georgene Smith Goodin for her memoir-in-flash Geography Lessons and Chey Dugan for her excerpt from her novel in progress Incredible Things. We’re grateful to Michelle Elvy and Shasta Grant for providing these manuscript consultations.

But wait, you say. Did I read that right? Narrative poetry. Yep. We’re loosening our laces a bit. Starting in January 2026, SmokeLong will begin considering narrative poetry. Call it narrative poetry, prose poetry or poetically inclined narrative art (OK, maybe don’t call it that). We will not be considering poetry with line breaks and/or impossible-to-replicate formatting. Please do not send us a concrete poem in the shape of a squirrel. Although we’d love to see this somewhere, we will have to pass on that one. Our decision to open this door has been a long time coming, acknowledging that the fuzzy line between poetry and flash welcomes innovation and necessary art, that compression invites poetry. So we’re doing it—with a firm focus on narrative arc. If you find this interesting, please watch smokelong.com for more information soon.

We’re now reading general submissions for the March issue and competition entries for the December issue. We’ll be open for entries in the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) until November 15^th. This competition is open to previously published and unpublished micros 250 words or fewer. Find out more HERE.

Follow our social media channels, especially Bluesky, to find out more about our plans for free events in fall 2025 and AWP 2026. We have lots in store.

Now go read Issue 89!

Christopher