Your hands are stained yellow from the garlic shrimp. I had told you that you could eat the shells but your haole ass was never going to do that. You’ll never know that sucking on the head is the best part. You’re staying at one of them Waikiki resorts with the towers and the tourists. You said you wanted an adventure. You’d never been with someone like me. So we go north. In the rental car, you reach over to...
Ah Ba says he sees particles drifting, flying everywhere, rains of dust, he says, speckles that land on the back of his hands, “see, see” he tells me, even though he’s blind. He says, dust balls into blobs that float in his line of vision; he scrambles to follow them, points his fingers at the air, “see, see” he says, for me to get a glimpse of the invisible clouds, and I push away the chair that stands in his...
let’s pretend the day didn’t begin with death. let’s pretend you didn’t facetime my sister from your car crying, YOU’VE LEFT ME & I’VE FALLEN THROUGH THE EARTH, & then put a plastic bag over your head, start suffocating. let’s pretend that bag didn’t suction tighter & tighter & tighter, skin tight. let’s pretend your facetime with my sister didn’t end moments later & you weren’t missing for over a day. let’s pretend we didn’t find you lifeless in the...
On their way to the refugee camp in Okigwe, Nnodim toys with the idea of eating her sickly father. It is only a slight joke, a passing thought, one that nonetheless fills her with shame. She wonders if her father has ever considered this thought: eating another person. She can never tell what it is he is thinking these days. They walk silently and steadfast. Her father no longer sighs as he usually does when they pass by a bomb...
I wrote my best friend’s obit and left out what mattered most. It wasn’t the remaining children, his second wife, or being a mechanic. He didn’t love being a husband or fatherhood. He liked to drink and so did his women, so the kids came naturally. I witnessed him at dance competitions and ball games with foam on his mustache, head down, watching the Browns on his phone. And I’ve felt him huddled against me in the hood of his...
SmokeLong Quarterly has been dedicated to publishing the best flash narratives since 2003.
December 2024
I have so much to tell you. It’s been a crazy few months. The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest is in the bag, and we have the top six micros in this issue. Writing a memorable, fresh micro is hard. It’s an art. A burst, a spark. And we are in love. In March we are… Continue reading New Front (continue reading)
The March Micro Marathon 25
We’re doing it again! We’re homing in on the micro: 100-word, 250-word, and 400-word stories. In March 2025 SmokeLong is hosting The March Micro Marathon, a 24-day workshop with a new writing task each day, peer review in small groups, 3 webinars, a reading and interview with Michelle Ross and the editors of 100 Word Story, and 3 competitions with cash prizes.
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Now in the shop
From borrowed forms, to plural POV, from breathless paragraphs, to code-switching, and so much more, let’s stretch our storytelling limbs and dive into the depths of what a micro can do for your writing. Join us as we explore your childhood memories, your mother tongue, your knowledge of myths and fairy tales to write that… Continue reading “Tiny but Deep” with Melissa Llanes Brownlee
jj peña (pronouns he/they) is a queer, burrito-blooded writer. jj’s one of 92NY Discovery Contest winners (2023) & has won a few creative non-fiction flash/hybrid contests. jj’s work is included in the Best Microfiction 2020 anthology & Wigleaf’s Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions (2020). jj’s stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Washington Square Review, Cincinnati Review, Massachusetts Review, & elsewhere. jj serves as a flash fiction reader for SplitLip Magazine.
