‘A story is an apocalypse served in a very small cup.’ - Hortense Calisher.

When you bake a cake, you need certain ingredients. As in life, there is no easy recipe you can use to create an effective short story, but it helps if you know what ‘ingredients’ are necessary.

We’ll discuss some of these: character, theme, yearning, setting, dialogue, the senses and point of view. We’ll talk about the ‘Arc’ of the classic short story and how to make ‘an incision in time’. We’ll find out what makes a satisfying ending, and why.

An enjoyable writing exercise will take place at the end of the session, so you may wish to have a notebook and pen at the ready. If time permits, there will be an opportunity to read what you have written during class, but there is no obligation to do so.

This workshop is suitable for Beginners as well as Emerging Writers.

MADELEINE D’ARCY is a fiction writer based in Cork City, Ireland. Her début short story collection, WAITING FOR THE BULLET (Doire Press, 2014) won the Edge Hill Readers’ Choice Prize 2015 (UK).Her second collection of linked short fiction, LIBERTY TERRACE (Doire Press, 2021) was awarded a FAPA President’s Prize (US) and is Cork’s One City, One Book 2023.Her short fiction has appeared in numerous newspapers, journals and anthologies, and has been translated into French, German, Turkish and Serbian.Literary prizes include the Hennessy Literary Award for First Fiction and Hennessy New Irish Writer Award. She was awarded bursaries from Cork City Council in 2012, 2016 and 2020 and from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2011, 2019 and 2021. She was granted a scholarship to complete an MA in Creative Writing (1.1., UCC, 2014). Residencies include Heinrich Böll Cottage, Tyrone Guthrie Centre and Centre Culturel Irlandais de Paris (forthcoming). She is a member of the Arts Council Peer Panel.She has completed her first novel, FEELING SAVAGE. She is currently working on her second novel and on a third collection of short fiction.