When we started offering workshops in 2019, we had no idea what we’d started. Our first workshops were in the UK with stops in London, Manchester (which is not in the Midlands), Birmingham (which is), and Norwich. We had an excellent time. And then came COVID. In 2020 we started organizing quarterly workshops, readings and open-mic parties online. The workshops sold out immediately. I remember standing in a queue to board a plane, getting so many bookings at one time that I was frantically trying to slap a SOLD OUT sign on the workshop, not really understanding how to go about doing that, seriously considering asking the airline to hold the plane for just a damn second. We were doing everything via email and Paypal; we had not yet discovered the efficiency of the online shop.
We’ve now had well over 2000 participants in our workshops, webinars, and other online events. SmokeLong Fitness, the year-round community workshop of SmokeLong, now in its second year, currently has 180 participants working on weekly writing tasks and exchanging drafts in small groups. We are continually committed to providing a lively, reliable place for flash writers to create what they love while making some new friendships.
We are also committed to compensating excellence, which is why we have created The SmokeLong Workshop Prize. If you have participated in any SmokeLong workshop and the work you began in the workshop has eventually been published, we want to know. Please always keep a record of the workshop where you drafted the piece, where and when the piece was published; then enter it in the next SmokeLong Workshop Prize. It’s free to enter, and the winner will receive $500. Second Place: $100. Third Place: $50.
This year we received 208 entries. Here is the list of our ten finalists, chosen by Jasmine Sawers. We’ll announce the winners soon!
The SmokeLong Workshop Prize Finalists 2023
“Classified Ad for a Ghost” by Mario Aliberto III, Drafted in SmokeLong Fitness, Published in Fractured Lit
“Bite” by Avitus Carle, Drafted in the fall 2020 quarterly workshop, Published in Passages North
“When You Call me Names” by Christine H. Chen — Drafted in A SmokeLong Summer ’22, Published in Perigee (Apogee).
“Seed Money” by Sara Hills — Drafted in the fall intensive 2021, Published at Reflex Fiction (Jan 2022); In Defence of Pseudoscience (Reflex Fiction Anthology five, July 2022) — Reflex Fiction has disappeared.
“Our Nudist Neighbors Are Fighting” by Joshua Jones Lofflin, Drafted in A SmokeLong Summer ’22, Published in Flash Frog
For Nearly a Year, You Forgot to Feed Me” by Candice May — Drafted in A SmokeLong Summer ’22, Published in Pithead Chapel
“Solar Flare” by Claudia Monpere, Drafted in SmokeLong Fitness, Published in Atlas and Alice
“About Accidental Firearm Discharge On Campus” by Paul Rousseau — Drafted in A SmokeLong Summer ’22, Published at Autofocus Literary
“Sometimes she wishes he was dead, but then she’d miss him” by Dawn Tasaka Steffler, Drafted in A SmokeLong Summer ’22, Published in Flash Frog
“The Last Norwegian Wolf” by Nathan Xie — Drafted in SmokeLong Fitness, Published in The Rumpus
A SmokeLong Summer 24!