SmokeLong Quarterly

Competitions are a constant back and forth of delight and disappointment. None of us takes this lightly. I appreciate so much the care each of our judges has given to the 1134 entries this year. Your comments have been gold, and I’m sure you agree with me that reading for a journal (and a competition) is a masterclass in itself. It’s an enriching experience that I’m grateful for every day.

To those of you whose titles remain in this competition, congratulations. We are still discussing your work because art is subjective, we all have varying tastes, and we all have our own opinions about what works and what doesn’t in flash. The standard of this year’s entries has been sky-high. If your work made it to the long list, please know that we found something we loved in it. We wish you lots of success with your writing.

If you see your title on this list below, please feel free to celebrate on social media as long as you refrain from identifying your title. Anonymous judging is ongoing, and we insist on anonymous judging. If any of our editors suspect they might know the writer or might have seen the work in a workshop, they must recuse themselves from the judging process. This is also one reason SmokeLong Fitness is a peer-review workshop: so that our workshop participants are able to enter our competitions without a conflict of interest. (Update May 26, 2024: Anonymous judging is over. We’ll be announcing the finalists and winners on June 1.)

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction Shortlist (names added May 26, 2024)

Ambrosia by H.J. Shepard
American Monster by Natalie Warther
And at Christmas I’ll Visit the Nursing Home, Pretend An Elderly Couple Are My Grandparents by Jo Withers
At Nite by Liza Jones
Beauty Queen in the Hive by Barbara Diggs
Bird Watching by Sara Kaplan-Cunningham
Cake by Tara Isabel Zambrano
Flight by Betsy Boyd
Grocery Store Mama by Shayla Frandsen
Hair on My Chest by Caroline Bock
He Loves Me Not by Sudha Balagopal
Illusion Museum by SL Syarief
In My Daydreams, I Taste Pistachios by Christine Roland
Octopus Heart by Latifa Ayad
Older Girls by Liza Jones
Pompeii by Sandra Khalil
Sarah draws little moustaches by Brendan Todt
Sick Day by Kalpita Pathak
Strong Female Character Goes by Her Last Name Only by Stephanie Yu
The Art of Making Perfect Rice and Other Secrets of Home Cooks by Srilatha Rajagopal
The human spirit is not mathematical by Will Bindloss
The Maze by Denise Napoli
The 7-11 That Exists in Every Reality by Lynne Beckenstein
The Touch Forecast by Claudia Monpere
The Yellow Greenhouse by Janelle Bassett