Bedroom: Wake in a bed composed of him, your cheek pressed into the downy lanugo padding on his skin, your skull tucked gently into the whorl of his ear. Keep your fingers suctioned inside the wet cave of his mouth. Curl your limbs around the softness of his gut. Let his breathing roll you like a lifeboat lost at sea. Pull his plump pink arms across your empty torso. Ignore the alarm clock. Let his coos and gurgles ripple like...
On an island called Jeju, barnacled women pull cockle and seaweed up from the sea earth. It is generational–grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and mothers all learning to breathe underwater, lungs long pillowed by salted air. They croon a language that is whistle, signs, and buzz. The first time I talk back to my father, my mother teaches me how to take my fight out on the brick of our front steps, just like she did against the walls of her own...
My father loved to watch other men play golf, the graceful way they swung their clubs, the ball soaring over the fairway, small and true. He wore cashmere sweaters he couldn’t afford. Slept with people he barely knew, coming home late at night in a cab, with a bouquet of excuses. Tiny red lines meandered across his nose and cheeks, like rivers that had lost their way. He met my mother on a cruise. They hit golf balls into the...
You are not allowed to touch the birds. You are not allowed to place the little dropper above the desperate wide open beaks of the rescued infants, who are screaming for your help, and squeeze a few white drops of nutrition that you have prepared into their hungry throats. You are not even allowed to clean their cages, or come within 15 feet of the City Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, unless accompanied by someone else. You are most certainly not allowed...
We are co-conspirators crouched together in an empty hotel parking lot when my dad teaches me how to start a fire. He cups his hand over mine, holding the magnifying glass above a pile of dry leaves. He shows me how to focus the light into a small dot, hot. We watch the leaf char, then ignite. We have a tradition where he takes me to stay at Best Westerns, a different one every time. He gets a room with...
SmokeLong Quarterly has been dedicated to publishing the best flash narratives since 2003.
December 2024
I have so much to tell you and so much to ask. These are troubling times, but you will have noticed this. What can an independent online journal do to resist rising fascism choking the arts and putting people at risk? In my last letter from the editor I mentioned the Kennedy Center, and now… Continue reading New Front (continue reading)
SmokeLong Fitness--The Community Workshop
The core workshop of SmokeLong Fitness is all in writing, so you can take part from anywhere at anytime. We are excited about creating a supportive, consistent and structured environment for flash writers to work on their craft in a community. We are thrilled and proud to say that our workshop participants have won, placed, or been listed in every major flash competition. Community works.
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Now in the shop
In this 90-minute craft discussion and reading with Shasta Grant, we’ll explore ways flash writers can approach writing longer works. We’ll discuss Grant’s When We Were Feral, a novel coming out in 2026 and how she used her flash chops to gain traction in a novel-length work. Date: June 15th Time: 2pm NYC. Please check for… Continue reading Kickstart Your Novel with Flash
with Shasta Grant
Haley Sim is a writer from Queens, NY. She is a 7 train rider, a Fiona Apple enjoyer, and the keeper of a lovely calico cat.
