Please note this event is now sold out.
Do you write short stories? Are you working towards a collection and looking for guidance on how to shape it?
From classics such as Dubliners by James Joyce and Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? by Raymond Carver to contemporary texts such as Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado and The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, short story collections have long enthralled readers.
Join short story writer Vanessa Onwuemezi as she talks us through what makes a great short story, and how to bring your short stories together as a collection. Whether you want to understand how short stories you have already written could work together, or whether you are writing short stories with a collection in mind, this masterclass will help you shape your work, through advice and practical exercises. Vanessa will be sharing learning from her own career, including tips on creating a thread for your collection, as well as how writers can experiment, not just with the form of the short story but across the form of the short story collection itself. She will also talk about the process of getting a short story collection published.
15 minutes will be reserved for a Q&A at the end of the masterclass.
This masterclass will be online, video platform to be confirmed. It will also be recorded so if you are unable to attend live, you'll be able to catch-up and access the recording for up to two weeks following the event.
Vanessa Onwuemezi is a writer living in London. She has a BA in Biological Sciences, an MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology and completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London in 2018. She is the winner of The White Review Short Story Prize 2019 and her work has appeared in literary and art magazines, including Granta, Frieze and Prototype. Her debut short story collection, Dark Neighbourhood, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2021, and was named one of The Guardian's best books of 2021. It was shortlisted for both the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Edge Hill Prize in 2022 and her short story Green Afternoon was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2022. She has written several exhibition texts, most recently for SMIIILLLLEEEE, Rachel Jones, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, 2021 and The Exile of Dionysus, Bill Lynch, Brighton CCA, 2022.
Photo credit: Lewis Khan
Please note this event is now sold out.
The workshop fee of £30 (incl. VAT) is payable in full online. Please note, all timings are per UK time.
This is a live online event which will be presented using video conferencing software. Joining instructions and full guidance will be provided by the W&A Team a week before the event start-date..
Please note that payment instalment plans are available for all W&A events, writing courses and editing services. Contact W&A Admin on events@writersandartists.co.uk so that we can find a payment schedule that works for you.
To view our event refund and cancellation policy, please click here.
Accessible to All
It’s of real importance to Writers & Artists that our events and courses remain accessible to all.
- Writers & Artists has made two bursary places available for this event as part of our accessibility scheme. Please visit our bursaries page for further information about how to apply.
- At the speaker's discretion, event materials will be made available to attendees after the masterclass.
- This event will include written text and visuals. Please contact us in advance so that we can make arrangements to be sure all documents appear in a format that works for you.
- If you’d like to attend but have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, then please email AccessWA@bloomsbury.com
