Learn the craft of short story writing, then create and polish new stories with an award-winning writer. Includes two masterclasses, led by Lucy Caldwell. The course if part of the Faber Academy

The online course will run from 27th January – 14th April 2021 and is limited to 12 Places.

Sessions will take place 7pm–9pm every Wednesday night for twelve weeks. Below is a session breakdown, which is subject to change, but should give you a good idea of what to expect.

For more details about fees and course timeslines, or to apply, visit the Faber Academy website.

 

Overview

In this course, we’ll look at what a short story is, has been historically, and what it might be – using that reading to develop your own practice as a writer. From Angela Carter and Borges to Lydia Davis and David Hayden, we’ll look at fairytales and urban legends, at flash fiction, at the concept of the ‘well-made’ short story and how contemporary writers have dismantled it. We’ll read David Foster Wallace and Dorthe Nors and talk about coming-of-age stories. We’ll read Lucia Berlin and Akhil Sharma and talk about how to write your own life, and we’ll read Lesley Nneka Arimah and Hassan Blasim and discuss the modern fable. We’ll read Kevin Barry, who blew the contemporary Irish short story wide open, and we’ll read work by some of the most exciting emerging voices, such as Yan Ge and Melatu Uche Okorie, and discuss how to write contemporary life. We’ll read Daphne du Maurier and Shirley Jackson and Elizabeth Bowen, looking at how to create and maintain a story’s mood. We’ll read Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish and learn how to edit our own work: where to begin, and where to end, and how to cut right down to the bone. We’ll end by looking at how and where to get your own work published, and at opportunities for unpublished and emerging writers.