In 2024 SmokeLong hosted our second SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. Our workshop participants reported almost 300 publications to us before November 1, 2024. In 2025, we’ll be featuring one writer each week from The SmokeLong Workshop Prize long list. It’s an excellent series of interviews, each grappling with questions about workshopping, giving and receiving feedback, and the publication process. If you are a previous or current SmokeLong workshop participant and you have ultimately published something you began in a SmokeLong workshop, remember to enter The SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. This free-to-enter competition is on our Submittable page.
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An Interview with Barbara Diggs — “Sway” published in Emerge Literary Journal
What do you remember about the workshop where you wrote this story? What was the prompt or writing task that led to the story?
Yes! It was a month where we were prompted to explore the elements of nature. In this assignment, we were asked to brainstorm the ways the characteristics of ‘The Earth’ might shape a character, then write a story with a character who embodied one of these characteristics. We were also asked to include a character who had the polar opposite characteristics, if possible.
Peer-review feedback is always full of surprises. In general, what kind of feedback do you find helpful? What kind of feedback do you find less helpful?
It’s helpful when a critiquer can articulate what’s missing for them in the draft and pushes me to go deeper, either into the story or a character. It’s also cool when someone points out a significant theme or connection in a story that has not fully emerged. It’s less helpful if someone provides vague advice such as “work on the ending.” I like to know exactly why something wasn’t working for a particular reader.
To how many places did you send this story? Can you tell us a little about its journey to publication? I submitted “Sway” to three journals. It was rejected at one with a very nice, personalized note, then it was accepted by Emerge Literary Journal. The journey was unusually short. I wrote “Sway” in the first week of May, submitted it the second week, and it was accepted in the third. Published in July.
What is your advice to someone considering taking part in a peer-review workshop?
Open yourself to criticism, don’t be afraid. In SmokeLong Fitness, I find that people really want to help you make your work the best it can be. On the flip side, be honest in your feedback to others. If an element of a story isn’t working for you, don’t be shy about saying why (but with grace, of course!) It’s then up to the writer to decide what to do with your feedback.
Read “Sway” published in Emerge Literary Journal.
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Barbara Diggs’s fiction has been published or is forthcoming in Wigleaf, SmokeLong Quarterly, Fractured Lit, Emerge Literary Journal, Funicular Magazine, Your Impossible Voice and many others. Her stories have also won Highly Commended awards with The Bridport Prize and the Bath Flash Fiction Awards. She lives in Paris, France with her family. Bluesky: bdiggswrites.bsky.social.
The core workshop of SmokeLong Fitness is all in writing, so you can take part from anywhere at anytime. We are excited about creating a supportive, consistent and structured environment for flash writers to work on their craft in a community. We are thrilled and proud to say that our workshop participants have won, placed, or been listed in every major flash competition. Community works.