Preview: Ani King Interview
and Launching a New Podcast section
I’m incredibly lucky to sit down with Ani King and chat with them about their debut collection of flash fiction. For some background, I virtually met Ani through SmokeLong’s super welcoming and amazing online community. I heard them read at AWP, but was much to shy to say hello. (I had said hello to, like, 5 people already, and that is a lot for me. And if there was ever a place for me to get imposter syndrome, it’s after listening to SmokeLong editors read their work.)
On Friday, you’ll be able to listen to the interview in the new Podcast section. Ani shares their writing process, their writing journey, the story behind this fun cover, book recs, and other cool stuff. It’s about a 45 minute interview, and a lively listen. Below are links to Ani’s socials, the stories we discuss in the interview, and a link to pre-order their collection.
TL;DR
Preorder Family Night by Ani King (out in Oct. through Mason Jar Press)
Head to their website to read their pubs or listen to the playlist they created for a few of their stories
Stories mentioned in the interview: It’s Not Called a Miscarriage if You’re a Horse, Nervous Thing, and Feels Like Rain
Ani Recommends: Evil Flowers by Gunnhild Øyehaug, Open Throat by Henry Hoke, Bitter Over Sweet by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, Claudine, Literary Namjooning, Pithead Chapel, SmokeLong, OkayDonkey, and Virgo Venus Press
HS: Ani King, They/Them, is a queer, gender non-compliant writer and artist from Michigan. They are the first place winner of the 2024 Blue Frog Annual Flash Fiction Contest, a SmokeLong Grand Micro Competition 2023 finalist, and have additional work featured in SmokeLong Quarterly Review, Split Lip Magazine, Fractured Lit, Exposition Review, WigLeaf, and other terrific publications. Most recently, Ani is a Monarch Queer Literary Award recipient, with work on the Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist, and coming soon in Best Small Fictions 2025 and Best Micro Fiction 2026. Ani’s first full-length Flash Collection Family Night is available for pre-order from Mason Jar Press and will be released in October this year.
[Note: Best Small Fictions 2025 is now available to purchase. If you like flash and micro fiction, check out the best of the best of the best, sir. (MIB reference I had to make)]
My Latest Publications
“All the Tomorrows,” microfiction, print, Stanchion issue 23, June 2026
“Alice Should Have Known Better,” microfiction, Trash Cat Lit, May 2026
“Serendipity” + 4 poems, poetry, Blood + Honey Lit Mag, Feb. 2026
“When You Find the Secret Tunnel Hidden Behind the Panel,” flash fiction, A Curious Moon Issue 2, Dec. 2025
“Kaleidoscope,” micro fiction, Silly Goose Press Issue 6, Nov. 2025
“New Yorkers,” flash fiction, Etched Onyx Issue 18, Sept. 2025