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 This year, as every year, The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest is open to previous published as well as unpublished micros 250 words or fewer.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” by Sumitra Singam
“A Love Meant for Leaving” by Finnian Burnett
“Accretion” by Dana Wall
“All Socks Turn to Raspberry Jam on My Feet” by Ed Moorman
“Allowance” by Mark Foss
“Angoor” by Mobina Pirsanan
“Baby” by Sarah Seidel
“Bodega Migraine” by Alan Michael Parker
“Blister” by Rochelle Newman
“Catch and Release” by Rosaleen Lynch
“Dearest Majorie: A Quest to Undertake on your Thirteenth Birthday” by Belinda Rowe
“Delta Pawn On Oxmoor Road” by Ashton Russell
“Food Poisoning” by S. Koji Callaghan
“Foxes” by D.B. Miller
“From The International Space Station, US Lab: Destiny” by Ani Banerjee
“Gender study; gestalt” by KT Herr
“Good Father” by Francine Witte
“Here Comes Your Man” by Amy Allen
“Hollow” by KJ Stevens
“Is It Yellowface If I’m Yellow Too?” by JQ Carratello
“Love ; Sigh” by Claire Guo
“Long Distance Relationship” by KT Herr
“My Monsters” by Skyler Melnick
“Mrs. Fairfax gave birth to a toaster” by Michelle Morouse
“Mucin” by Lucy Bullivant
“Nairobi, after Independence” by Bede Yolland
“On Family Movie Nights We Watch The Video of My Father’s Colonoscopy” by Sumitra Singam
“On Salvation” by KT Herr
“On Silent Hill 2 and Losing Him for the Last Time” by J Buentello Benavides
“Overhearing a Phone Call about the Socio-Political Considerations of Being Asked Out as a Teenage Girl” by DC Restaino
“Party Song” by Vaneeza Sohail
“Rumination” by Stuart Cavet
“Safety Bucket” by Aaron Sandberg
“Signal:Noise” by Max Steiner
“Submariner” by Lindsey Pharr
“Step 3: Insert Hope Mechanism” by Darryl Benjamin
“The Best of Both of US” by Sandy Krausnick
“The Bit Part Actress” by Jo Withers
“The Claw Machine” by Nadia Born
“The Gorge” by Emily Rinkema
“The Meat Ration” by Kate Horsley
“The Night Chorus” by Lindsey Pharr
“the sentence tree” by Nadia Born
“The Sleeping Girl” by Esther Ko
“The Story of a Throne” by Zeynep Uzun
“This Side of No” by C.K. Liu
“Tupac Shakur Is Alive and Well in Havana, Cuba” by Derek Harmening
“Two of the Twelve Days” by Zahra Asheghi
“What Belongs to Us” by Ash Alpert
“Window Seat” by Valerie Hughes
Congratulations to everyone on this list! Our shortlist will be coming soon!
Christopher Allen
SmokeLong
