Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 8th Jun - Sat 13th Jun, 2026
All Day
Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT
A Continuum of Shorts: From The Bold To The Traditional
There are so many ways to conceive, shape and finish the short story that this most exacting and slippery of narratives can feel quite challenging.
This week will be a deep dive into a continuum of approaches, from the plotted to the subversive, from the serious to the mischievous. We provide you with craft guidance, mini-lectures, writing exercises and tutorials, all intended to equip you with the right questions to assess that short in progress. We’ll explore what it means to make people especially for short stories; how to apply brevity and singularity; and help you edit for beauty and clarity.
For writers who have already tried the form and now want their short stories to be even better.
Tutors
Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel, Butterfly Fish, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. Her journalism has been featured in The New York Times, the Observer, the Guardian and the Huffington Post. She is a Contributing Editor for The White Review as well as And Other Stories. She co-presented the BBC’s Turn Up for The Books podcast, alongside Simon Savidge and Bastille frontman Dan Smith. Her work has been optioned for the screen. She has also judged various literary prizes including the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, the BBC National Short Story Award and the Dublin Literary Award. She was a judge for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Formerly the Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, she was awarded an MBE For Services to Literature in 2021. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future Festival. Her new novel, Curandera is published by Dialogue Books and Soft Skull Press in the US. It was longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize.
Leone Ross is a three-time novelist, short story writer and editor. Her fiction has been nominated for the Women’s Prize, the Goldsmiths award, the RSL Ondaatje award, and the Edge Hill Prize, among others. In 2022, she won the Manchester Prize for Fiction for a single short story. The Guardian has praised her ‘searing empathy’ and the Times Literary Supplement called her ‘a pointilliste, a master of detail…’ Ross has taught creative writing for 30+ years. She has been a judge in the short story category for the Bridport Prize, Mslexia magazine and the VS Pritchett Award. Her third novel, This One Sky Day aka Popisho was published in 2021 [Faber & Faber]. She is the editor of Glimpse: A Black British Anthology of Speculative Fiction, published in 2022 [Peepal Tree Press]. Ross is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Guest Reader
Tessa Hadley has published eight novels – including The Past, Late in the Day, and Free Love – and four collections of short stories. Her novella, The Party, was published last year. She has short stories regularly in the New Yorker, and reviews for the Guardian and the London Review of Books; she was awarded a Windham Campbell prize for Fiction and the Hawthornden Prize in 2016, and has won the Edge Hill Prize twice: in 2018, for Bad Dreams, and in 2024, for After The Funeral.
Fees
The full fee for this course is £740. This includes your accommodation in a single room with shared bathroom, all meals, hot drinks and snacks from Monday afternoon until Saturday morning, and your tuition. For more information about the format and practicalities of our courses, tutored courses, and retreats, please visit our About the Residential Courses & Retreats page..
A limited number of en-suite rooms are available, which can be booked in advance for a £50 surcharge. We will also reserve an en-suite room for anyone who may need it due to a medical condition. This will be offered out as an upgrade nearer the course start date if it is not needed.
A limited number of Twin Room places are available at a discounted price of £690 per person. When booking a Twin Room place, please tell us in the comments box which gender you are and which gender(s) you are comfortable sharing a room with. This information will remain confidential.
A small single room with a skylight is available at a discounted price of £715. Please note this room does not have an ordinary window, only a small skylight.
A deposit is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £590 is due six weeks before the course begins. Please read our Terms & Conditions for full details about our cancellation policy. If you would like to pay the full amount in advance, please email info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Bursaries are always available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments. If you have any problems paying online, or wish to discuss paying in instalments or applying for financial help, or would simply like assistance, please contact us by emailing info@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements, for example a ground floor bedroom and / or access to a step-free accessible shower room. We also reserve one en-suite bedroom per course for anyone who may need this due to a medical condition. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.