We’ve done all the soul-searching and the nitpicking, and we have narrowed the Smokey field down to the following stories. Blind judging is still in progress, so please feel free to proclaim your excitement on social media but not the title of your story until we have made the announcement of the finalists soon–very soon. Update 6/15/20: We’ve added author names to this list. Decisions have fallen.
The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction Shortlist
*69 by Leonora Desar
All Your Fragile History by Jasmine Sawers
And Then She is a Witch by Ellen Rhudy
Babushka by Kristen Loesch
Cupola by Jiksun Cheung
Everywhere, All at Once by Emily Roth
Four Lies by Ashley Wilson Fellers
Good Work and Goodbye by Clany Tripp
Homing Call by Claire Griffiths
How to Build a Bunker by L.M. Brown
I’m Not an Actress by Ashley Jeffalone
I would have written a story, except I had to hang out with richard brautigan by Angela Readman
Our Childling Season by Ellen Rhudy
Search Party by Rebecca Turkewitz
The Art of Losing by Julie Cadman-Kim
The High Blue Sky by Tomiko Breland
This is How You Give a Baby CPR by Kyra Baldwin
To the White Woman in the Safeway: by Katerina Ivanov
To Pieces by Abby Feden
Waiting by Jemimah Wei
What is Ours by Meg Walters
What Lucy Said by Candice May
When We Left Earth, the Whales Came With Us by Hannah Cajandig-Taylor
Why I think of you every time I bruise by Madeline Anthes
Yellowhead by William Squirrell
Zero by Emily James
Congratulations to all the writers of the stories on this list. Your work is memorable, nuanced, and solid in so many ways. In a few days we will announce our 12 finalists, first, second, and third place stories. Our 17th-anniversary issue goes live on June 22.
Christopher Allen
and the SLQ team
