We were thrilled by the response to this year’s Grand Micro Contest, now an annual competition. Our judges—twelve of them from all over the world—read more than 1300 entries, and we are grateful for the care they’ve shown each entry. This year, as every year, The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest is open to previous published as well as unpublished micros 250 words or fewer. These works of compressed art can be fiction, CNF, narratives that lean poetic, and/or translations (we’d love to see more).
A bit about our editorial process: Each micro is read by two judges. If even one of the judges votes maybe, another judge is assigned. If this judge also votes maybe, the entry is sent into the second round of judging with all eight senior editors being assigned to the entry. The list below represents the top 50 entries, a purely coincidental number despite its tidiness. All entries are read anonymously. If judges recognize the work and can identify the author, these judges must recuse themselves.
Very important: If you see your work on this list, please feel free to celebrate on social media but do so without identifying your work. Anonymous judging is ongoing.
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest Long List
“A Lexicon of Who I Was and Who I Became”
“A Love Meant for Leaving”
“Accretion”
“All Socks Turn to Raspberry Jam on My Feet”
“Allowance”
“Angoor”
“Baby”
“Bodega Migraine”
“Blister”
“Catch and Release”
“Dearest Majorie: A Quest to Undertake on your Thirteenth Birthday”
“Delta Pawn On Oxmoor Road”
“Food Poisoning”
“Foxes”
“From The International Space Station, US Lab: Destiny”
“Gender study; gestalt”
“Good Father”
“Here Comes Your Man”
“Hollow”
“Is It Yellowface If I’m Yellow Too?”
“Love ; Sigh”
“Long Distance Relationship”
“My Monsters”
“Mrs. Fairfax gave birth to a toaster”
“Mucin”
“Nairobi, after Independence”
“On Family Movie Nights We Watch The Video of My Father’s Colonoscopy”
“On Salvation”
“On Silent Hill 2 and Losing Him for the Last Time”
“Overhearing a Phone Call about the Socio-Political Considerations of Being Asked Out as a Teenage Girl”
“Party Song”
“Rumination”
“Safety Bucket”
“Signal:Noise”
“Submariner”
“Step 3: Insert Hope Mechanism”
“The Best of Both of US”
“The Bit Part Actress”
“The Claw Machine”
“The Gorge”
“The Meat Ration”
“The Night Chorus”
“the sentence tree”
“The Sleeping Girl”
“The Story of a Throne”
“This Side of No”
“Tupac Shakur Is Alive and Well in Havana, Cuba”
“Two of the Twelve Days”
“What Belongs to Us”
“Window Seat”
Congratulations to everyone on this list! Our shortlist will be coming soon!
Christopher Allen
SmokeLong
