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×The StoriesQuarterly IssuesWeekly StoriesThe AuthorsGuest EditorsOpportunitiesA SmokeLong SummerThe SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction — 2022The SmokeLong Grand Micro ContestEditorial Feedback OptionsSubmissionsGuidelinesSubmitNewsShopDonateAbout UsWho We AreStaffWe Support…Contact Us SmokeLong Quarterly ☰ The StoriesQuarterly IssuesWeekly StoriesThe AuthorsGuest EditorsOpportunitiesA SmokeLong SummerThe SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction — 2022The SmokeLong Grand Micro ContestEditorial Feedback OptionsSubmissionsGuidelinesSubmitNewsShopDonateAbout UsWho We AreStaffWe Support…Contact Us Search Skip to content When the vines wandering around the wheel wells of my father-in-law’s old Winnebago flower in early summer, Sarah takes pictures, painting the image of an eternal bloom on an Airbnb listing, yellow petals bursting beside the rust-tinged door. To make our mortgage payments, she says. In this rusted city, abandoned when industry dove into the sea, we have no tourist attractions, national parks, or theater districts. Just an old plastics plant, a burned-out furniture shop, a bait and tackle acting...– Continue Reading "Winnebago" by Corey FarrenkopfSmokelong Weekly for May 2, 2022 When you’re hungry enough, you eat your baby; this is why you should always have three sacks of rice and five tubs of pork sung to get stuck between your teeth, so I am told as I stare down my chest, milk dribbling from a nipple like neglected ice cream, racing the baby for who eats whom first, and though I am sore, my arms heavy, my back like the IKEA ceramic plates that chipped when I placed them on...– Continue Reading "Feeding" by Lucy ZhangSmokelong Weekly for May 2, 2022 On March 14th, 2012, Mayretta “May” Brunson Kelly Williams Bryant Jones slept away peacefully right into Jesus’ arms after a long undisclosed illness (and if that big-mouth Margaret Hill says May had a nasty woman’s disease, she’s a goddamn lie). May was born August 13th, 1932 to Essie and Eddie-Frank Kelly (both deceased) in Bainbridge, Georgia. Eddie-Frank had too many outside kids to name, but May was one of twelve children born of the union between him and Essie: Meddie...– Continue Reading "Mayretta Kelly Brunson Williams Bryant Jones (1932-2012)" by Deesha PhilyawSmokelong Weekly for May 2, 2022 Ping starts to regret going to medical school Ping’s deterioration begins on the transplant service, when Dr. Schrock places the organ donor’s beating heart into his latex gloved hands, while the anesthesiologist turns off the life support. Legally, Ms. Ishikawa was already dead, her brain liquefied days after the motor vehicle accident, but all the viscera below her neck is still shiny and warm and throbbing with pulsating blood. Yet no one needed the heart, so Dr. Schrock gives it...– Continue Reading "Hold Pressure" by Eliot LiSmokelong Weekly for May 2, 2022 My mother is praying to a new god. This one bestows points per bites. She prints out the dietary canon, makes highlights, tapes pages to the refrigerator door. Half-bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, fifteen points. White fish with lemon and broccoli, thirty-five points. A teaspoon of honey, twenty. I am sixteen years old and praying to the gods of want. In biology class, I tap a pencil against my wrist bones whilst a creamy substance drips down my thighs. We...– Continue Reading "Gods of Hunger, Gods of Want" by Candice MaySmokelong Weekly for May 2, 2022 Dedicated to bringing the best flash narratives to the web, by widely published authors or those new to the craft. SmokeLong is a paying market. Issue Seventy-Five March 2022 From the Editor I have so much to tell you. First, we have nine gems to share with you in issue 75, and I’m sending out of big hug to the ‘we’: the 26 readers/editors who give so much of their time to make sure SmokeLong runs smoothly, the interviewers, the artists, and the web designer who is… Continue reading New Front (continue reading) LotteryRebecca Bernard All the Ways We’re HurtingEmma Brankin RabbitfishA. J. Bermudez in acheMelissa Llanes Brownlee WinnebagoCorey Farrenkopf Hold PressureEliot Li Gods of Hunger, Gods of WantCandice May Mayretta Kelly Brunson Williams Bryant Jones (1932-2012)Deesha Philyaw FeedingLucy Zhang A SmokeLong Summer May 30-Aug 28! From May 30 to August 28 2022, SmokeLong is going to host a superworkshop. We want to spend the summer with you, the flash community. Our workshops take place on a devoted website where you can create a profile, interact with the flash community, and take part in group discussions on craft, but A SmokeLong Summer will be much more. Learn more… Support SmokeLong Quarterly Your donation helps writers and artists get paid for their work. If you’re enjoying what you read here, please consider donating to SmokeLong Quarterly today. e This Quarter’s Guest Editor Jennifer Wortman Jennifer Wortman is the author of the story collection This. This. This. Is. Love. Love. Love. Her work appears in TriQuarterly, Hayden’s Ferry Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Electric Literature, Brevity, Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and elsewhere, and has been cited as distinguished in Best American Short Stories. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and MacDowell, she lives with her family in Colorado, where she teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop and serves as associate fiction editor for Colorado Review. >> Read the interview with Jennifer Wortman Featured IssueIssue Forty-Five So here you are, watching your favorite show on PBS and suddenly they interrupt it. An earnest-looking person, standing in front of several rows of folks answering phones, proceeds to tell you why you should donate money to the station to keep your favorite programming alive. I’m that earnest person, standing between you and the… Continue reading Issue Forty-Five Featuring stories by: Jacob AielloC.A. ColeCameron BrindiseCedrix E. ClarkeChristopher McCannChris WellsDavid ScrivnerErin Lyndal MartinE.S. BumasGania BarlowJason PeckJoseph LucidoLaura Maylene WalterMargot TaylorMark DerksMelissa YancyMichael Patrick BradyNick SansoneRoblin MeeksSimon Han Author Eliot Li Eliot Li lives in California. His work is forthcoming or appears in Pithead Chapel, The Pinch, Atticus Review, Pidgeonholes, Litro, Cleaver, and others. He can be found on twitter @EliotLi2. Read the Interview… Latest News “Baby Shoes”: Anatomy of A Six-Word Storyby Rachael Ann Siciliano Legend has it that over lunch with fellow writers, Hemingway boasted he could write a story with six words. His friends scoffed. Hemingway took their bets, then scribbled on his napkin: “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.” The stunned writers paid up. Though this never happened (writers revised “Baby Shoes” for……May 2, 2022Continue Reading…Amsterdam University College Reads the Queue Again!As part of our ongoing collaboration with Amsterdam University College, students from Mieke Eerkens’ creative writing class, recently read our submission queue. Here’s our conversation with the students: Who are you? We are students in the Creative Writing course at Amsterdam University College in The Netherlands, a liberal arts undergraduate college with an interdisciplinary approach……April 27, 2022Continue Reading…Book Review: One Person Away from You: Stories by Andrew BertainaReviewed by Julia Tagliere For readers who are already prone to fits of melancholy, Andrew Bertaina’s collection One Person Away from You: Stories, winner of the 2020 Moon City Short Fiction Award, could benefit from providing a content warning, as this 184-page book is a master exercise in provoking just such fits. This is a……April 5, 2022Continue Reading… Stay InformedSign up, and we’ll keep you informed on all things Smokelong.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.All original work featured here is copyright their respective creators. 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