Recent Blog Posts

Word Factory Apprenticeship Jan 10

 Word Factory #37 and Masterclass Oct 5

In the beginning was the Word Factory – a series of intimate short story salons bringing brilliant writers and readers together for wine, conversation and great work. The London salons take place in The Society Club, a quirky bookshop in Soho, on the last Saturday of every month. You can also find us at The Case in Leicester and we have plans for other cities, including Manchester and Belfast, under discussion.

We continue to develop the Word Factory; our apprentice scheme has been launched this year to bring two emerging talents together with acclaimed mentors (in this instance, Faber novelist Alex Preston and the superb Stella Duffy), and we will be publishing by the end of 2014 with short stories and extracts from fiction initially, adding non-fiction as we strengthen the factory floor. To compliment the salons we also run regular masterclasses; this year we are running a fiction series with Joe Dunthorne, Nicholas Royle, Vanessa Gebbie, David Constantine and  David Vann. In May we will also be running our masterclass weekend at Birkbeck University focusing on perfecting non-fiction. The masterclass line up includes Alexei Sayle; TLS editor Peter Stothard; human rights campaigner and winner of the Orwell prize Andrew Williams; and former editor of the Sunday Times Magazine and award-winning journalist and author Robin Morgan.

You can meet featured authors on our website, enjoy their recommendations and readings and sample the very best short fiction. Enjoy our articles, join our salons and master-classes. Together we will create the perfect ending.