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Postage

Story by Kate Petersen January 9, 2017

Art by Dylan Haigh

Without warning, the price of stamps began to drop. After inching up and up her whole life. Few others noticed right away, since everyone was looking at their phones, even at the post office. Still, forever, which she’d never bought anyway, came to mean something slightly different, and each day after there was a little less of it to press against and hold.

About the Author

Kate Petersen was raised in Arizona. Her work has appeared in New England Review, Kenyon Review, Zyzzyva, The Collagist and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a Stegner Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize, and teaches at Stanford as a Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing.

About the Artist

Dylan Haigh was born and raised in Newmarket, NH  before escaping at 17 to Boston, then New York, and finally, North Carolina. He returned to the seacoast in 2009 to open Haigh and Martino, a design studio in downtown Portsmouth which he founded with his wife, Kristy.

This story appeared in Issue Fifty-Five of SmokeLong Quarterly.
SmokeLong Quarterly Issue Fifty-Five
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The March Micro Marathon 25

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We’re doing it again! We’re homing in on the micro: 100-word, 250-word, and 400-word stories. In March 2025 SmokeLong is hosting The March Micro Marathon, a 24-day workshop with a new writing task each day, peer review in small groups, 3 webinars, a reading and interview with Michelle Ross and the editors of 100 Word Story, and 3 competitions with cash prizes.