We’re at it again—for the fourth time! Our summerlong program (May 24th-July 25th) is a lively mix of peer-review workshopping, live webinars, readings, craft discussions, open mics, and more. This year our theme is “Flash Inclusive” as we traverse the borders into poetry, the novel, and the flash/micro collection. We are truly mixing it up this year. What’s your cocktail?
Important: If you are already taking part in SmokeLong Fitness, A SmokeLong Summer is included!
How the Peer-Review Workshop of A SmokeLong Summer 25 Works
In SmokeLong Fitness, the offspring of the original SmokeLong Summer in 2022 and the ongoing community workshop of SmokeLong, we always exchange drafts in small groups and do one task each week. In A SmokeLong Summer there are three tasks each week, and we remix the small groups once a fortnight. New this year: because we hope to have a varied group this year, each participant will have the opportunity to participate in two small groups for exchanging drafts:
1) A small group with general writing tasks three times each week appropriate for writers of fiction/nonfiction/hybrid focusing on a different craft element of writing flash. Participants in these groups can post up to three times a week.
2) A group specific for feedback on narrative poetry, CNF/flash collections, or novels in flash. The participants in these groups will remain in the same group the entire summer so that they can see the development of the longer works. The participants in these groups should post once or twice a week excerpts of their work up to 1000 words.
In this matrix structure, we hope our participants will feel encouraged to give and receive enriching feedback while accomplishing their specific goals. This year we are open to participants editing works in progress, especially those polishing longer works using the principles of flash. In fact, A SmokeLong Summer’s “Flash Inclusive” is perfect for these writers.
Live Webinars, Readings, and Craft Discussions
To date, we’ve planned two webinars focusing on the intersection between poetry and flash with Sage Tyrtle and Erin Vachon. We’re also going to have two craft discussion on flash and the novel writer. And we’ll be talking to the Western Australian writer Mabel Gibson about her memoir in micros, Crybaby. We’ll have a reading group devoted to Crybaby with discounted digital copies from Night Parrot Press in Australia. In addition, we’ll host 3 open mic events with lots of prizes to win in our now infamous Big ASS* Raffle.
Our events are recorded for participants unable to attend live due to the Earth’s pesky rotation.
List of Live Events
May 24th — Opening Event Party – Fun and Games, Meet and Greet, and the first round of The Big ASS* Raffle
Time: 10am NYC
Duration: 90 minutes
June 1st — Micro Vs. Prose Poem with Erin Vachon
Time: 11am NYC
Duration: 90 minutes
You’ve written something tiny and now face a pesky question. Is this a micro or a prose poem? We’ll study the line between these sister genres, reading and writing to strengthen our hand in both forms.
Erin Vachon is Senior Reviews Editor at SmokeLong Quarterly, the Multigenre Reviewer-at-Large for The Rumpus, the Multigenre + Chapbook Editor for Split/Lip Press, and an Editorial Panelist for Sarabande’s 2025 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Their work appears in SmokeLong Quarterly, Black Warrior Review, DIAGRAM, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Pinch, Brevity, The Anarchist Review of Books, and more. Their writing has been selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best of Net, and Best Microfictions. Erin writes and edits outside Providence, RI.
June 15th — Kickstart Your Novel with Flash with Shasta Grant
Time: 2pm NYC
Duration: 90 minutes
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.
Shasta Grant grew up in New Hampshire and now lives in Indianapolis. An Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow, Kenyon Review prize winner, and recipient of writing residencies from Hedgebrook and The Kerouac Project, she holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of the chapbook Gather Us Up and Bring Us Home (Split Lip, 2017), a senior editor at SmokeLong Quarterly, and co-founder of Brown Bag Lit. Her debut novel, When We Were Feral, is forthcoming from Regal House in 2026.
June 27th — Loop & Spiral: Flash Fiction Through Poetic Forms with Sage Tyrtle
Time: 7pm NYC
Duration: 90 minutes
Flash fiction thrives on precision, momentum, and depth—qualities also
found in structured poetry. This workshop challenges advanced writers
to craft flash fiction using the repetition-driven frameworks of a
pantoum and a sestina, pushing their prose toward unexpected
resonance.
Through guided prompts, participants will first explore the pantoum’s circular structure, layering meaning with each repeated line to evoke memory, obsession, or shifting perception. Next, they’ll tackle the sestina’s spiraling pattern, using its six recurring words to build narrative tension, emotional echoes, and surprising pivots. By embracing constraint, writers will unlock new ways to manipulate language, deepen emotional impact, and discover narrative possibilities they might not have otherwise considered.
Takeaways:
How repetition and structure can create compelling fiction.
Strategies for adapting poetic forms into narrative prose.
Two completed flash fiction drafts rooted in a pantoum and a sestina.
A new understanding of how form shapes meaning.
Sage Tyrtle’s work is available in New Delta Review, The Offing, Lunch
Ticket, and Apex among others. Words featured on NPR, CBC, and PBS, and
taught in schools. Moth GrandSLAM winner. Read more at www.tyrtle.com.
July 5th — Panel Discussion: The Long & Short of Craft: Authors Publishing Novels and Flash Fiction
Time: TBA
Duration: 90 minutes
Many writers struggle with when and how to compress and expand their fiction. These panelists, experts in both the flash and novel form, will discuss tips and strategies for finding the best size for your story, what the two opposite ends of the writing spectrum have to learn from each other, and how stretching your expertise helps a career.
Panelists:
Sherrie Flick is the author of two short story collections, a novel, and an essay collection. She served as co-editor for the Norton anthology Flash Fiction America and is a senior editor at SmokeLong Quarterly. I Have Not Considered Consequences, her third story collection, releases in April 2025. She is the 2025 McGee Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Davidson College.
Alan Michael Parker is the author of four novels and eight books of poetry, and he is a weekly cartoonist for the online journal Identity Theory. His latest book is a collection of Bingo cards and flash, BINGO BANGO BOINGO (Dzanc, 2024). He chairs the English Department at Davidson College, where he also directs the Creative Writing program.
Venita Blackburn is an award-winning author of the story collections Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (2017) and How to Wrestle a Girl, (2021), and the debut novel Dead in Long Beach, California (2024). She is an associate professor of creative writing at California State University, Fresno.
John Dufresne is the author of two story collections, six novels, and four books on craft, including Flash! a Guide to Writing Very Short Fiction and Storyville: an Illustrated Guide to Writing Fiction. He teaches creative writing at Florida International University and is at work on a novel.
TBA — Author Reading and Interview with Mabel Gibson
Time: TBA
In this 90-minute reading and interview, we’ll talk to Mabel Gibson about her memoir in micro Crybaby. We’ll also have a reading group in the workshop devoted to the memoir with a discounted digital copy from Night Parrot Press.
CryBaby is Yamatji author Mabel Gibson’s highly anticipated collection of micro memoir. Moving across distinct landscapes in Western Australia, the 56 dreamy and fragmented moments in this collection chronicle Mabel’s life from the age of two to twenty-five. They tell her story as a young First Nations woman who, despite the consuming storms of personal challenges and grief, finds her voice and strength as a writer.
*A SmokeLong Summer
Cost: $185 BOOK HERE
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.