In 2024 SmokeLong hosted our second SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. Our workshop participants reported almost 300 publications to us before November 1, 2024. In 2025, we’ll be featuring one writer each week from The SmokeLong Workshop Prize long list. It’s an excellent series of interviews, each grappling with questions about workshopping, giving and receiving feedback, and the publication process. If you are a previous or current SmokeLong workshop participant and you have ultimately published something you began in a SmokeLong workshop, remember to enter The SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. This free-to-enter competition is on our Submittable page.
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An Interview with Jessica Klimesh — “Would You Rather Freeze to Death or Burn to Death?” by Jessica Klimesh published in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine.
What do you remember about the workshop where you wrote this story? What was the prompt or writing task that led to this story?
I wrote this story on the second day of the March Micro Marathon. The general theme for that day was realism, and the specific prompt was to draft a 100-word story “in which a character is faced with a stark reality or an impossible choice.” Though I don’t recall the context at all, I remember a time many years ago when someone asked me whether I would rather freeze to death or burn to death. Talk about an impossible choice! That was pretty much the first impossible choice that came to my mind when I read the prompt, and the story grew out of that.
Peer-review feedback is always full of surprises. In general, what kind of feedback do you find helpful? What kind of feedback do you find less helpful?
The feedback I find the most helpful is feedback that is specific to the piece at hand. I especially like feedback where I’m asked questions that help me get to the heart of a work in progress, e.g., what was your intent with X, Y, or Z?
Feedback that’s less helpful for me is feedback that is overly general, abstract, or prescriptive, or seems to want to change my intent or voice.
To how many places did you send this story? Can you tell us a little about its journey to publication?
Surprisingly, this story was accepted at the first place I sent it (a relatively unusual occurrence for me)! I had been looking through my drafts specifically for a story to send to Gooseberry Pie Lit, a journal that publishes stories that are exactly six sentences long (and no more than 400 words). I had looked at a few different drafts—several from the March Micro Marathon—and, curiously, I discovered that the first draft of this particular story was exactly six sentences long! I did revise/edit it quite a bit, which included lengthening the story slightly as well. During revision, it became longer than six sentences, so to save room, I moved the central question—would you rather freeze to death or burn to death?—to the title instead of using valuable space within the narrative itself.
What is your advice to someone considering taking part in a peer-review workshop?
I’ve been involved (both as a facilitator and a participant) in peer-review workshops for over twenty years, and one of the important lessons I’ve learned is to trust my own writerly instincts. (It’s not always easy to do!) Peer feedback is beneficial and sometimes even essential, but it has its limits. It’s most useful when you’re with writers who hold a similar understanding of a genre, e.g., a group of flash writers. But it still comes down to you as the writer and what you want from the piece you’ve written. Ultimately, my advice is to thoughtfully consider any feedback you receive, but don’t try to apply all of it; take what resonates with you and trust in your own voice and instincts.
Read “Would You Rather Freeze to Death or Burn to Death?” by Jessica Klimesh published in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine.
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Jessica Klimesh (she/her) is a US-based writer and editor whose creative work has appeared or is forthcoming in Flash Frog, Gone Lawn, Ghost Parachute, Cleaver, Many Nice Donkeys, and Club Plum Literary, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net, and she was a first-place winner in Gooseberry Pie Lit‘s 2024 six-sentence story contest. Learn more at jessicaklimesh.com.
