Introduction to the short story

Please note this Workshop is at capacity and we are no longer taking registration. Please join us November 18th for Jan's reading at Bank Square Book.

About the workshop: This lively, interactive and incredibly practical workshop will equip you with everything you need to begin or continue your journey with the short story. Combining discussion, writing exercises and teaching drawn from Jan’s own experience you can expect to explore all the components of the short story including character development, plot, structure, voice, editing and much more. Over the course of the two and a half hour session, you’ll have a chance to develop and begin writing your own short story. Jan will also offer hard learnt advice on the publishing process. This workshop is suitable for both beginner writers and those keen to reinvigorate their writing practice. All you need is an imagination, a pen and a notebook.

About your instructor: Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024 and Scribner (US) in July 2024. Her writing has been aired on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She is the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast 2025 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first stage play, an adaptation of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit was produced by Replay Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in March 2025. Her next novel, Few and Far Between, is forthcoming in early 2026.