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Crossing

Story by Alice Mercier (Read author interview) March 19, 2018

Art by SmokeLong Quarterly

Feathers in the road look only like feathers at first, and then like birds, and finally like two geese killed crossing together. But their bodies are not yet held—there is something still animate about the way their wings stick out at angles and keep catching the air. As though they’ve hit the ground but are still falling. Like violence unfinished.

About the Author

Alice Mercier worked as an assistant archivist in London before moving to the U.S. She writes and illustrates short fiction, and is currently a student in the creative writing program at Cornell University.

This story appeared in Issue Fifty-Nine of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Fifty-Nine
ornament

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The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest

Deadline November 15th!

The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) is now an annual competition celebrating and compensating the best micro fiction and nonfiction online.

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Previously published as well as previously unpublished work will be considered.