SmokeLong Quarterly was established in 2003 by Dave Clapper. Past editors-in-chief have been Randall Brown and Tara Laskowski. The current editor-in-chief and publisher is Christopher Allen. All other editors are associate, freelance editors or volunteers. Our senior editors–and many of our submissions editors–offer editing services privately. We encourage you to seek them out.
We are dedicated to bringing the best flash narratives to the web quarterly, whether written by widely published authors or those new to the craft.
The term “smoke-long” comes anecdotally from the Chinese, who noted that reading a piece of flash takes about the same length of time as smoking a cigarette. SmokeLong Quarterly does not condone smoking, but we do enthusiastically condone reading flash when you have a few minutes.
- We publish flash narratives that are 1000 words or fewer. Our word limit is firm.
- General submissions are open 365 days a year, except during some competitions.
- We never charge reading fees, although you may voluntarily donate through the tip jar feature. While your generosity is very much appreciated, it does not affect our decision on your story.
- SmokeLong stories have been recognized by the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Web, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Wigleaf Top 50. They have also been anthologized in places such as Norton’s Flash Fiction International and Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader: Flush Fiction.
- Each quarter we invite an editor and teacher from the flash community to join the SmokeLong team as a senior editor and instructor in our quarterly online workshop. If you would like to be on our mailing list to receive workshop information, please send an email to editors@smokelong.com.
- Each quarter we invite four experienced writers from around the world to join SmokeLong as Readers in Residence. These writers read submissions with our submissions editors.
- Occasionally, we invite creative writing classes to read our submissions queue for one week.
- We support worthy causes when we see them. Please have a look at our We Support page. These organizations do good things.
- We run The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction competition (The Smokey), The SmokeLong Grand Micro Competition, and The SmokeLong Quarterly Prize for Comedy.
