Well that was difficult—and so rewarding. This time of year is always an avalanche of great flash. From August to December we read for The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey), the SmokeLong Workshop Prize, The SmokeLong Emerging Writer Fellowship, and of course the general queue. As I’ve said before, we now read an average of 14,000 submissions a year. Our aim is to keep up with the pace, embracing the avalanche, which seems like a pretty dangerous metaphor, while giving each submission, competition entry, and fellowship application the care it deserves in a timely manner. Everyone on our team is committed to this, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
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 they read with enthusiasm and respect for each entrant. This year, as every year, The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest is open to previous published as well as unpublished micros 250 words or fewer.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 work in translation).
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. All entries are read anonymously. If judges recognize the work and can identify the author, these judges must recuse themselves.
The micros listed below are our top seven entries out of more than 1300. Ranking them was a ridiculous task, more so this year than any other year. And several micros on the shortlist came close to publication. For the 2026 Grand Micro Contest we are considering some changes to the competition guidelines and format that will allow us to publish more of the entries.
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest Winners
“Love ; Sigh” by Claire Y. Guo (first place)
“Gender study; gestalt” by KT Herr (second place)
“Submariner” by Lindsey Pharr (third place)
“Party Song” by Vaneeza Sohail (finalist)
“Signal:Noise” by Max Steiner (finalist)
“the sentence tree” by Nadia Born (finalist)
“Window Seat” by Valerie Hughes (finalist)
Congratulations to everyone on this list! Issue 90 goes live December 15th!
Christopher Allen
SmokeLong
