Arriving at our finalists this year for The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest has been so difficult. The following list of micros presents six narratives that most of our judges felt accomplished something remarkable. It’s hard to describe what that “something” is. We read thousands of micros each year in the SmokeLong queue, so we’ve seen every imaginable story, some many times. Maybe it’s that burst of something memorable and important that washes over the reader like a baptism? Is that too dramatic? Probably. But micros are dramatic. There’s never even a hint of So what? in a successful micro.
The micros below will appear in the December issue of SmokeLong Quarterly alongside four stories we chose from 3000 submissions in the general queue from August 16 to November 15. Congratulations to everyone on this list; you’ve done something remarkable. Please feel free to share the news that your work will be published in December, but please do so without identifying your micros. Anonymous judging is ongoing.
Thank you also to everyone who entered this competition. We wish you lots of success with your writing.
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest – The Finalists
I See You
In War, Daughters Bury Their Fathers
Obit
strangers breathe air into you
The Shell
the sky didn’t slip inside
Again, please remember that anonymous judging is ongoing. Please do not identify your work. We hope to announce the top three places very soon.
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