You’ve written “How to Mourn Your Mother” in the imperative mood. Why did you settle on the second person point of view and present tense? Second person provided distance from this emotional material ...

Alt: the number seven is glowing in the dark

This story is such a perfect image of gay panic, and it encapsulates the insecurity of youth and self-discovery. Was there a particular moment or image that inspired this story? It started with the ph...

Short Stories Joel Hans 978-0-913785-69-0 Paper February 2026

The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction (The Smokey) is now an annual competition that celebrates and compensates excellence in flash. Our first grand prize winner in 2018 was “Whale Fall” by ...

YouTube video by 3DoorsDownVEVO

Did you hear about the Black man? The Black woman? Black boy? The Black girl gone missing? Kidnapped. From thoughts and prayers. From the news. A child turned memory turned muted turned into a body, f...

Mama can’t see me, but I’m watching over her. From the kitchen. She’s on the couch in the den, recumbent, because she’s depressed, which she never says, but I know. I can read her mind. She lays my ni...

Mama can’t see me, but I’m watching over her. From the kitchen. She’s on the couch in the den, recumbent, because she’s depressed, which she never says, but I know. I can read her mind. She lays my ni...

Your story is set in Karachi, which is also where you are from. What do you want people who have never been there to know about the city? You will never figure it out. Some days the city will make sen...

Join the SmokeLong community for Promptember, a mysterious intermonth happening between November and December of live write-in events designed to light a fire under your writing life. Participate in o...