Since we began leading workshops in 2019, we have had thousands of workshop participants who’ve produced more than ten thousand drafts. We began collecting information on publications in 2023, and now know that since then over 600 narratives started in our workshops have found their homes. Workshopping works—not for everyone, but for many. We are thrilled to have so many passionate, thoughtful, and supportive writers sharing their work every day in our community workshop SmokeLong Fitness.
In 2023 we created The SmokeLong Workshop Prize. The first-place winner of this prize wins $500. Last year Claudia Monpere won with her story “Solar Flare,” originally published by Atlas and Alice and subsequently honored by inclusion in The Best Small Fictions.
The standard for The SmokeLong Workshop Prize is high. All of the nearly 300 narratives reported to us in 2024 were accepted for publication and published on or before November 1, 2024. Some of the narratives have won prizes already. As we were reading the entries, we commented again and again that they all had their strengths, all deserving. But thanks to our love for a competition, we are now in a pickle, or as the Germans say, Now we have the salad.
We are now burdened with the obligation to narrow down a field of already good stories. Our long list is the result of months of deliberation. We’ve tried to retain our commitment to anonymity where possible. It’s not always possible, but we have treated this task with the utmost of respect and objectivity. Congratulations to everyone who took on the task of writing anything in our workshops. You wrote; you won. Please remember that if you start a draft in a SmokeLong workshop and subsequently get that narrative published, you are eligible to enter the SmokeLong Workshop Prize. Our next competition reading period will begin on January 1, 2025 for narratives published anytime before December 31, 2025. This means anytime, so if you participated in a SmokeLong workshop in 2019 and are just now hearing about this prize, you can enter work that started in the workshop and was subsequently published.
Each of the narratives on the list below will be featured in 2025 as we celebrate weekly stories published that started in SmokeLong workshops. Look for these interviews on our blog starting in January 2025.
We’ll also be choosing first, second, and third places from this list before the end of the year. Judging is ongoing, so please do not identify your work if you find your title(s) on this list.
The SmokeLong Workshop Prize – Long List
952 Ways to Kill your Daughter
A Cock Among the Bathers
A Sky Full of Clouds
Almanac
Axolotl Soup
Begin
Birdie
Claw
Cloud Seeding
Crunchy
Dnipro
Driving my Seven-Year Old Nephew to Visit His Mother at Rehab
Fellas, Is it Gay?
Fourteen to Twenty-Nine
Gladiator
Good Morning, Max
Habit
How to Adjust to Losing Your Hair
How to Eat Pitanga
How to Write a Story on Skin
Hummingbirds Remember Every Flower They Visit
In the name of those optimist Iranian Fools
Kitchen Dancing
Knee-deep
Leftovers on the Dashboard
Lil Fucker
Lord Randall
Lost & Found
Miss Texas Considers Talking About Her Tooth
Mom gets me a dog for my ninth birthday because she says all kids should have a dog
Mother-mother, Wasp-mother
Mud Pies
Namo Amituofu
Opportunistic Feeders
Parole Day, Acrylic on Canvas
Proof
Rules Keep You Safe
Submerged
Such Good Care
Sway
Swiftly, Swiftly Over Ice
Ten PhD Defense Questions You’ll Probably Face
The Bird Lady in the Attic Stitches Robins Together by Moonlight
The Last Hall Monitor
The Ultra Cutthroat Hand Pie Contest, Junior Edition
There Were Two Options; We Could All Go, or I Could Leave Them Behind
We Have Little Time Left
When Bebe and Kumar Met Halloween Night at the Lizard Lounge in Vegas
Would You Rather Freeze to Death or Burn to Death?
You Almost Never Walk Anywhere With Your Father Now
You are Your Own Science Project
