SmokeLong Quarterly

In 2021 we at SmokeLong are going to conduct a different kind of workshop—one that we offer free of charge while raising a whole lot of money—we hope—for a really wonderful organization: the Roshan Learning Center in Jakarta, Indonesia founded in 2014 to provide long-term educational solutions for refugees.

Roshan Learning Center is a ‘safe and healing learning space’ for nearly 200 refugees. Because resettlement can take more than a decade, long-term solutions—such as helping students get their GED high school diploma and access to university—is vital.

For the next six months Smokelong Quarterly is thrilled to provide a creative writing workshop for young women who have fled war and persecution in their home countries, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, and Eritrea.

We will be offering six different workshop modules conceived and led by six talented SmokeLong editors: Sharmini Aphrodite, Farhana Khalique, Zainab Omaki, Hadiyyah Kuma, Maria Alejandra Barrios, and Shreya Vikram. The purpose of these workshops is to equip participants with the unique skills the flash narrative requires while inspiring the participants to produce high quality work of publishable standards.

But we would also like to raise funds for Roshan so that they can keep changing lives. From March 1 to September 1 2021 every dollar donated through SmokeLong’s donation button below and at the bottom of every story will go to the Roshan Learning Center, with half of these proceeds going directly to the participants of the SmokeLong workshop. With your help, SmokeLong can help share the stories of these young women with the world—women who’ve chosen action over despair.