SmokeLong Quarterly

I have so much to tell you. Issue 92 is a special competition issue: a combination of the top nine stories in The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction competition and the top three stories in The SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. All twelve pieces do something amazing with the form. Flash fiction is such a versatile container—and such an effective constraint. Over the last two decades of editing the flash narrative, I’ve learned so much about what’s possible in flash, and I’m thrilled—again and again—to be able to share compelling narratives. Thank you to the SmokeLong team for all your hard work getting this issue done.

The grand prize winner of The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction 2026 (The Smokey) is “On Trees and Treefrogs” by L.A. Strycker. We’re thrilled to say that this is the author’s first publication. And what a grand first publication it is. We wish L.A. Strycker lots of success. Our grand prize comes not only with money but also with nominations. We nominate the first-prize winner of The Smokey for all the prizes. So much gravy. So many cherries.

The grand prize winner of The SmokeLong Workshop Prize 2025 is Kate Horsley and the story “The Altar of Saint Cindy,” originally published in Vestal Review. Once published, anything drafted in a SmokeLong workshop is eligible to win this prize, a free-to-enter competition on our Submittable page.

Congratulations to all the finalists as well. We’ve reread your work so many times, and it just keeps getting better and better with every read. We’re so happy to share the top nine stories from 1200 entries. The top three SmokeLong Workshop Prize winners were chosen from nearly 400 entries in 2025.

Do you know about The Village? The Village is a free online space for the global flash community to find information about flash journals, flash happenings around the world, recent flash collections, and a space for instructors of the flash narrative to exchange ideas (coming soon). You can find an invitation to The Village through the Bluesky account @heyflashvillage.bsky.social.

We’ve just begun A SmokeLong Summer 26 with 250 writers drafting flash fiction, flash CNF, narrative poetry, and long-form narratives. Sadly, it’s too late to jump in and write with us this summer, but registration for SmokeLong Fitness opens July 1^st to start August 1^st.

Finally, what are you doing September 25-27? If you’re in Europe, why not come to Madrid and party with European Writers Salon? I’ll be there, and I’d love to meet you.

You’re all pretty,

Christopher