Helen Rye
@helenrye.bsky.social
Writer, editor. UEA Prose MA and fledgling PhD researcher. Won some writing things. Published some writing things. @smokelong.bsky.social senior ed. She/her.
Reposted by Helen Rye
Singapore flash writers, unite! @smokelong.bsky.social will be in Singapore soon and we're doing a reading and open mic with Lit Namjooning and @eunoiareview.bsky.social. If you're in/around SG and want to read your flash-length work, do register. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
January 2, 2026 at 10:31 AM
Singapore flash writers, unite! @smokelong.bsky.social will be in Singapore soon and we're doing a reading and open mic with Lit Namjooning and @eunoiareview.bsky.social. If you're in/around SG and want to read your flash-length work, do register. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Helen Rye
January marks a year since we started the early form of this giving circle, which you've transformed into a mechanism for dependable support for the last eight months. That really means something to these six families & a camp of fifteen more.
Join in: chuffed.org/project/hope...
Join in: chuffed.org/project/hope...
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that…
chuffed.org
January 2, 2026 at 6:01 PM
January marks a year since we started the early form of this giving circle, which you've transformed into a mechanism for dependable support for the last eight months. That really means something to these six families & a camp of fifteen more.
Join in: chuffed.org/project/hope...
Join in: chuffed.org/project/hope...
Reposted by Helen Rye
Hahaha I said to Chris "Nobody ever looks at my Bluesky, we can just use it to test if the access link works" 😀 it's early days, so sorry if it does anything weird for anyone trying to join—very very welcome if you do, though, and hopefully it will just let you! ❤️
January 1, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Hahaha I said to Chris "Nobody ever looks at my Bluesky, we can just use it to test if the access link works" 😀 it's early days, so sorry if it does anything weird for anyone trying to join—very very welcome if you do, though, and hopefully it will just let you! ❤️
We're not totally sure if the joining process is working quite as we want at the moment so if anyone uses this we'd love it if you could let us know what happens!!
Hello! The above bleat is a test post, but if you'd like to join The Village you can do so via this link. It's free and we are nice.
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co/plans/191340...
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co/plans/191340...
The Village
The village with all the flash writers
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co
January 1, 2026 at 3:08 PM
We're not totally sure if the joining process is working quite as we want at the moment so if anyone uses this we'd love it if you could let us know what happens!!
(It's a SmokeLong thing. Not a cult, probably.)
Hello! The above bleat is a test post, but if you'd like to join The Village you can do so via this link. It's free and we are nice.
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co/plans/191340...
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co/plans/191340...
The Village
The village with all the flash writers
smokelong-quarterly.mn.co
January 1, 2026 at 3:04 PM
(It's a SmokeLong thing. Not a cult, probably.)
January 1, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Helen Rye
Teuta Hoxha, 29, has been in prison without trial for 13 months.
news.sky.com/story/fears-... #BritishJustice #NeverNotAtIt
news.sky.com/story/fears-... #BritishJustice #NeverNotAtIt
Fears Palestine Action hunger striker will die in prison after 43 days without food
Teuta Hoxha's body is the "only form of resistance she has and that's what she is using against the state", her sister says.
news.sky.com
December 22, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Teuta Hoxha, 29, has been in prison without trial for 13 months.
news.sky.com/story/fears-... #BritishJustice #NeverNotAtIt
news.sky.com/story/fears-... #BritishJustice #NeverNotAtIt
Reposted by Helen Rye
Read "Love ; Sigh" by Claire Y. Guo, the winner of The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 25 and her interview that accompanies the micro here. Claire is our featured author this week. www.smokelong.com/interviews/s...
Smoke Signals with Claire Y. Guo - SmokeLong Quarterly
How did the semicolon shape the relationship between your narrator and her mother? Was this punctuation an initial craft decision or a later one? The semicolon is defined as a pause between clauses, m...
www.smokelong.com
December 17, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Read "Love ; Sigh" by Claire Y. Guo, the winner of The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 25 and her interview that accompanies the micro here. Claire is our featured author this week. www.smokelong.com/interviews/s...
Reposted by Helen Rye
We love kicking off the week with a new issue. Our DECEMBER ISSUE is here and ready for you to browse! 📖 🙌 buff.ly/xfJzbi6
December 16, 2025 at 12:30 AM
We love kicking off the week with a new issue. Our DECEMBER ISSUE is here and ready for you to browse! 📖 🙌 buff.ly/xfJzbi6
Reposted by Helen Rye
...and our interview here! ✨
Smoke Signals with Claire Y. Guo - SmokeLong Quarterly
How did the semicolon shape the relationship between your narrator and her mother? Was this punctuation an initial craft decision or a later one? The semicolon is defined as a pause between clauses, m...
www.smokelong.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
...and our interview here! ✨
Reposted by Helen Rye
It's good to remember that there are things worth celebrating–like this *incredible* issue of SmokeLong. We received an overabundance of stunning work for this year's Micro Contest. Check out all the winners, including my interview with Mikey winner, Claire Y. Guo. ✨
Issue 90 is live! Please go read the amazing work within, including the top 7 stories chosen from hundreds submitted to the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest and the overall winner, Love; Sigh by Claire Y. Guo. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us work this quarter. www.smokelong.com/issue-ninety/
December 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
It's good to remember that there are things worth celebrating–like this *incredible* issue of SmokeLong. We received an overabundance of stunning work for this year's Micro Contest. Check out all the winners, including my interview with Mikey winner, Claire Y. Guo. ✨
Reposted by Helen Rye
Read Claire Y. Guo's winning micro...
Love ; Sigh - SmokeLong Quarterly
Ma collects birth stories as lozenges and swallows them when she is tired. Not of her own, because she was born between the fingers of rice paddies, quickly and flush with shame, but of me. I was a ci...
www.smokelong.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Read Claire Y. Guo's winning micro...
Reposted by Helen Rye
Issue 90 is live! Please go read the amazing work within, including the top 7 stories chosen from hundreds submitted to the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest and the overall winner, Love; Sigh by Claire Y. Guo. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us work this quarter. www.smokelong.com/issue-ninety/
December 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Issue 90 is live! Please go read the amazing work within, including the top 7 stories chosen from hundreds submitted to the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest and the overall winner, Love; Sigh by Claire Y. Guo. Thank you so much to everyone who sent us work this quarter. www.smokelong.com/issue-ninety/
Reposted by Helen Rye
Issue 90 cover reveal! Out on Monday. Including the winners of the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2025 🏆
December 13, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Issue 90 cover reveal! Out on Monday. Including the winners of the SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2025 🏆
Reposted by Helen Rye
We have winners! The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest was a bear this year. So many excellent micros. These are our top 7 and will be published Monday in Issue 90! www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest — The Winners! - SmokeLong Quarterly
Well that was difficult—and so rewarding. This time of year is always an avalanche of great flash. From August to December we read for The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey), the SmokeLong Work...
www.smokelong.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:26 PM
We have winners! The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest was a bear this year. So many excellent micros. These are our top 7 and will be published Monday in Issue 90! www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
Reposted by Helen Rye
A big round of applause please for our top 25 micros in The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 25! If you see your work on this list, please feel free to celebrate on social media but please do so without identifying your title(s). Anonymous judging is ongoing. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest — The Shortlist - SmokeLong Quarterly
We were thrilled by the response to this year’s Grand Micro Contest, now an annual competition. Our judges—twelve of them from all over the world—read more than 1300 entries, and we are grateful for t...
www.smokelong.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:00 PM
A big round of applause please for our top 25 micros in The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 25! If you see your work on this list, please feel free to celebrate on social media but please do so without identifying your title(s). Anonymous judging is ongoing. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
Oh though I’ve totally done this as a parent when your kid who can’t cope with not winning pass-the-parcel at their birthday party needs you to invent something quick for them to get a prize for too before they throw themselves on the floor in a tantrum although tbf they were 4 at the time
December 7, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Oh though I’ve totally done this as a parent when your kid who can’t cope with not winning pass-the-parcel at their birthday party needs you to invent something quick for them to get a prize for too before they throw themselves on the floor in a tantrum although tbf they were 4 at the time
“Voluntary deportations”? How is this oxymoronic xenophobic bile coming from @teamlabouruk.bsky.social? @labourlewis.bsky.social this is too Orwellian for me. The rhetoric of my lifelong party disgusts me. Torn between never wanting to vote for them again and wanting to keep you as my MP.
"He wanted the deportations of people born in Britain to be “as voluntary as possible”. So not "voluntary" then.
Labour and Reform are essentially aligned on anti-immigration. The only difference being that Labour claims its xenophobic cruelty is "progressive".
archive.today/6jlRL
Labour and Reform are essentially aligned on anti-immigration. The only difference being that Labour claims its xenophobic cruelty is "progressive".
archive.today/6jlRL
December 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM
“Voluntary deportations”? How is this oxymoronic xenophobic bile coming from @teamlabouruk.bsky.social? @labourlewis.bsky.social this is too Orwellian for me. The rhetoric of my lifelong party disgusts me. Torn between never wanting to vote for them again and wanting to keep you as my MP.
Reposted by Helen Rye
A simple ask on this first Saturday of December: click “weekly” or “monthly” on a coffee.
The math adds up. Almost two hundred people have pledged around this, and it has meant sustained, dependable support for six families & a camp—to survive.
The math adds up. Almost two hundred people have pledged around this, and it has meant sustained, dependable support for six families & a camp—to survive.
Keep Hope Alive: a Gaza Giving Circle
We are a team of volunteers in the US and UK, led by two sisters passionate about helping our friends on the ground keep their families and neighbors alive with food, water, & shelter. We saw that their...
chuffed.org
December 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A simple ask on this first Saturday of December: click “weekly” or “monthly” on a coffee.
The math adds up. Almost two hundred people have pledged around this, and it has meant sustained, dependable support for six families & a camp—to survive.
The math adds up. Almost two hundred people have pledged around this, and it has meant sustained, dependable support for six families & a camp—to survive.
Reposted by Helen Rye
Streeting, vocal about his belief that mental health issues, autism, ADHD etc are "overdiagnosed, is pushing a review, part led by someone who's already done this to ME patients, into whether they're overdiagnosed. Expect a lot more articles trying to set a narrative. 2/
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Streeting orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnoses
The health secretary says the aim is to tackle a rising demand for services and pressure on the NHS.
www.bbc.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Streeting, vocal about his belief that mental health issues, autism, ADHD etc are "overdiagnosed, is pushing a review, part led by someone who's already done this to ME patients, into whether they're overdiagnosed. Expect a lot more articles trying to set a narrative. 2/
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Helen Rye
As with government "reviews' into migrants rights, disability support, trans and non-binary individuals etc there is usually a preferred outcome which the government wants to achieve. That is helped by media outlets pushing somewhat misleading reports supporting the preferred outcome. 1/
December 6, 2025 at 9:19 AM
As with government "reviews' into migrants rights, disability support, trans and non-binary individuals etc there is usually a preferred outcome which the government wants to achieve. That is helped by media outlets pushing somewhat misleading reports supporting the preferred outcome. 1/
Reposted by Helen Rye
We just gave our annual donation to @rosemetalpress.bsky.social who does so much to support flash and hybrid works. If you can, please send them some cash on this Giving Tuesday. rosemetalpress.com/support-rose...
Support Rose Metal Press | Rose Metal Press
Support Rose Metal Press
rosemetalpress.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:30 PM
We just gave our annual donation to @rosemetalpress.bsky.social who does so much to support flash and hybrid works. If you can, please send them some cash on this Giving Tuesday. rosemetalpress.com/support-rose...
Reposted by Helen Rye
Our workshop participants reported more than 40 publications in November. While they don't yet rule the world—unfortunately—they rock it.
www.smokelong.com/smokelong-wo...
www.smokelong.com/smokelong-wo...
SmokeLong Workshop Celebration – November 2025 - SmokeLong Quarterly
Each month we celebrate our current and previous workshop participants’ publications reported to us through Submittable (The SmokeLong Workshop Prize). Each of the publications below, with the excepti...
www.smokelong.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Our workshop participants reported more than 40 publications in November. While they don't yet rule the world—unfortunately—they rock it.
www.smokelong.com/smokelong-wo...
www.smokelong.com/smokelong-wo...
Reposted by Helen Rye
Congratulations to the winner of SAFTA's SmokeLong Quarterly Fellowship for Trans Writers for Spring 2026, M. K. Thekkumkattil!
Details of how to apply for the next round (Summer 2026—deadline Feb 1): www.sundresspublications.com/safta/reside...
Details of how to apply for the next round (Summer 2026—deadline Feb 1): www.sundresspublications.com/safta/reside...
December 2, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Congratulations to the winner of SAFTA's SmokeLong Quarterly Fellowship for Trans Writers for Spring 2026, M. K. Thekkumkattil!
Details of how to apply for the next round (Summer 2026—deadline Feb 1): www.sundresspublications.com/safta/reside...
Details of how to apply for the next round (Summer 2026—deadline Feb 1): www.sundresspublications.com/safta/reside...