At our first Short Story Club in April, about twenty writers got together to discuss Katherine Mansfield’s story, ‘A Dill Pickle’. We could have gone on for hours, honestly, but in the one short hour we did have, we dug into the shifting power dynamics of this dialogue-laden piece, the personalities that emerged from the subtext of the character’s speech and actions, the use of symbols (especially food), and the extraordinary hinterland created by a brief encounter in a cafe.
You don’t need to have attended a previous Short Story Club to come to our next one. All are welcome, as are all responses. If the story riled you, we want to know! If it reminded you of something else you’ve read, please come along and share that intertextual connection. Our conversation will be informal, open, and will hopefully provide some new ways of thinking about story structure that you might apply to your own writing.
In other past sessions, we have read: ‘Stone Mattress’ by Margaret Atwood, ‘Signs and Symbols’ by Vladimir Nabokov, ‘The Rain Horse’ by Ted Hughes, ‘The Bus’ by Shirley Jackson, ‘The Kitchen Child’ by Angela Carter, ‘Keeping Watch over the Sheep’ by Jon McGregor.
Tuesdays, 6-7pm, UK Time. Once a month. You can find upcoming session dates over on our Substack Calendar.
This session is available to paid Substack subscribers only, but if you upgrade to a paid subscription, you also get access to Accountability Club with Ennis Welbourne (writing sessions) and Memoir Club with Lily Dunn (dissecting a personal essay or memoir extract)!
Substack Posts
Short Story Club – Online discussion group for all
Short Story Discussion Group – Join us for a live Zoom session once a month to talk about a published short story
The Flash of Fireflies – Zoe on the power of the short story to inspire
