Create your first short story collection
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Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 28 Feb 2026End Date: 28 Feb 2026Sat (Daytime): 10:30 - 16:30In PersonFull fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £40.00
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What is the course about?
Creating a short story collection is a balancing act between care for individual pieces of fiction and curation of a whole book. This workshop guides students on selecting and sequencing short stories to make collection coherent and purposeful.
What will we cover?
- Elements to consider when selecting stories for your first collection.
- Elements to consider when sequencing stories for your first collection.
- Titling your first collection.
- Submitting your first collection for publication.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Curate and select stories for your first collection.
- Sequence stories in a manner that will add to the overall meaning of the collection.
- Select an appropriate and effective title for your first collection.
- Consider points when submitting your collection for publication.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is an advanced course. Ideally, students will have completed previous fiction courses where their short stories have already been workshopped in preparation for compiling their first collection.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
A mixture of pair work, group work and tutor led-instruction.
City Lit Writing endeavours to create a safe and welcoming space for all and we strongly support the use of content notes in our classes. This means that learners are encouraged to make their tutor and classmates aware in advance if any writing they wish to share contains material that may be deemed sensitive. If you are unsure about what might constitute sensitive content, please ask your tutor for further clarification and read our expectations for participating in writing courses at City Lit.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Writing materials.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
City Lit offers a range of fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction courses, as well as professional development courses for writers.
Alice Ash is the author of the short story collection Paradise Block (Serpent’s Tail, 2021). She teaches at Goldsmiths University and has performed and spoken on panels across the UK, including at the Brighton Fringe Festival and the Burley Fisher Day 2021. Paradise Block won The Edge Hill Readers Prize 2021, and a story was longlisted for the Galley Beggar Short Story Prize in 2019. Other writing has been featured in Granta, Refinery29, 3:AM, Hotel, Extra Teeth Magazine, the TLS, and Mslexia, amongst many others. Interests include motherhood, women’s horror writing, domesticity, magical realism, and metamorphosis. Alice’s second book, a novel, will be published by Serpent’s Tail in 2023. She lives in Brighton.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.