Each month we celebrate our current and previous workshop participants’ publications reported to us through Submittable (The SmokeLong Workshop Prize). Each of the publications below, with the exception of those reported by SmokeLong staff members, is eligible to win The SmokeLong Workshop Prize, which is awarded in January of the following year. At the moment, the grand prize is $500. This competition is free to enter and can be found on our Submittable page.
If you have participated in a SmokeLong workshop anytime between 2019 and now and have published something that you drafted in that workshop, your work is eligible. Say you participated in a webinar in 2020 and you published something you started there later in 2023. Let us know now. Your work will be eligible to win the prize in 2025 (awarded in January 2026). Or maybe you published something in 2024 that you started in A SmokeLong Summer 22 but are just now reading about this competition. Let us know now. The only limitations are that your work must be published before the deadline in December each year, and it must have been drafted in a SmokeLong workshop. SmokeLong staff members are not eligible to win The SmokeLong Workshop Prize, but we include their work drafted in a SmokeLong workshop below because we of course want to celebrate their successes too!
In March, our workshop participants reported 17 publications to us! That’s amazing! And this list is always a good place to start if you’re looking for places to publish your own work. If you missed the deadline to enter this year’s competition, no worries! The reading period for the 2026 competition is now open!
Need community? SmokeLong Fitness is SmokeLong’s year-round community workshop, and you can start at the beginning of any month except July because that’s in the middle of A SmokeLong Summer 26, which you should totally do. Details coming soon.
Please help us celebrate these publications!
“Grizzly Bear” by Blinda Rowe, in Centaur
“Bubbe’s Shiva” by Johannah Simon, in Thin Skin
“No-Fire Glitch Patience” by Johannah Simon, in Anti-Heroin Chic
“Select The Best Option for Our Origin Story” by Johannah Simon, in Electric Pink
“Welcome to Death Valley and Other Eco-Crisis Tours” by Abby Manzella, in Ghost Parachute
“Wife in Watercolors” by Johannah Simon, in La Rotonde Review
“Courtship Rituals of Midlife Males” by Chris Cottom, in Sultry, Monstrous, Untamed Tales (p. 56)
“Sister Act” by Chris Cottom, in Underbelly Press, Issue 6, Greed
“Penny’s Phobias” by Kim Magowan, in The Bulb Region
“Kelly O’Keefe Practices Gratitude” by Kim Magowan, in The Bulb Region
“Six” by Magda Lynne, in Blood+Honey
“Vanessa, 37, Lifelong Vegetarian, Yearns for Bone Broth” by Laura Nagle, in Trash Cat Lit
“Virtuous” by Linda M. Bayley, in Trash Cat Lit
“I Wake on our Tenth Anniversary to a Slate-Grey Saturday and Tom Already Running” by Chris Cottom, in Free Flash Fiction
“Dad Club” by Chris Cottom, in Fictive Dream
“We Set the Table on My Pillow” by Shira Musicant, in Lucent Dreaming
“The Lowing of Cattle” by Chris Cottom, in New Writers UK (first place)
In September 2022 SmokeLong launched a workshop environment/community christened SmokeLong Fitness. This community workshop is happening right now on our dedicated workshop site. If you choose to join us, you will work in a small group of around 15-20 participants to give and receive feedback on flash narratives—one new writing task each week.