Lucy Nelson‘s short story collection Wait Here was longlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize, shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing. Her work has been published in The Monthly, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Morning Herald and The Big Issue. She has previously received the Newcastle Short Story Award, the Templeberg Residential Writers’ Fellowship, a Varuna Fellowship and will undertake a residency at Budnanon in late 2026. She has a few new books on the boil, one of which is hitting shelves in 2027.
FWA: With recent successes like Fiona McFarlane’s Highway 13 and All Her Lives by Ingrid Horrocks, we are seeing a resurgence in short form fiction being critically recognised. What do you think is driving this?
LN: A first impulse might be to say that it has something to do with our shrinking attention spans but I don’t think that’s fair to the form. While a short story might take less time to read than a novel or a memoir, I don’t think readers give them any less of their attention. In fact, as a reader, I’d say that I bring a deeper, more focused attention to a short story than I do when I sit down with a few chapters of a novel. Something to do with knowing that the next twenty-odd pages contain an entire world and I will both discover it and leave it behind in one sitting. With that in mind, maybe there’s something about the deep, accessible bursts of escapism a short story offers that we’re especially hungry for right now, the state of the world being what it is.
FWA: Lucy, your short story collection, Wait Here, has been widely acclaimed and was longlisted in the 2026 Stella Prize. What drew you to writing a short fiction collection and what is it about writing short fiction that captivates you?
LN: I loved the idea of a book housing a disparate cast of tenuously connected women. Their worlds are separate and they might never cross paths but so many of their instincts and insights are shared. I think writing a collection gave me permission to touch on those shared experiences lightly without having to explain them or connect all the dots, the way I might with a novel.
FWA: In Writing Short Fiction you will be joined by co-tutor Emma Hislop, author of the award-winning Ruin and Other Short Stories, as well as special guest, Anna Thwaites, editor of HEAT literary journal. What can students expect from this exciting new course?
LN: Emma and I are really eager for the classes to be quite dynamic, so a good variety of discussion, writing exercises, workshopping and resources. Our goal is to help people dig deep and make their work the very best it can be. We will each be bringing our own unique approaches and experiences to the sessions, meaning that students will have two brains to pick for the price of one! The one-on-one consultations will be a brilliant opportunity to focus on and thereby fast-track the progress of individual writers. Anna’s insights as an editor will be invaluable and will, I imagine, really motivate people to get their work publication-ready.
FWA: How does this course benefit long-form writers looking to try out new ideas before committing to another novel, as well as those already experienced in short-form writing?
LN: I find that facilitated workshops are always a great and supportive way to explore work in its infancy and get a sense for ‘what a story wants to be when it grows up’. What are people having strong reactions to? What are they most confused or moved by? What is the most compelling aspect of the idea according to others? Is the idea too sprawling to be contained in a short story?
Honing craft benefits any form you choose to tackle. Understanding more about pace, point of view, character, texture, narrative tension is always going to make you a better writer no matter what you’re working on. One of the weekly classes is especially focusing on scope and the size of an idea so that will be an opportunity to chat about finding the right form in more detail.
FWA: This course includes one-on-one consultations with students receiving feedback on their work. How important is feedback when developing short fiction and what can students expect from the consultation process?
LN: Constructive, considered feedback is worth its weight in gold. We get so close to the work we create that we lose any ability to see it with perspective. Sometimes you can feel there’s a problem but you can’t quite identify it. Or you’ve identified a problem but have no idea how to approach a solution. Hearing what’s working, what isn’t and why (or often just being asked the right question) always gives me a clear path forward when it comes time to move through an edit. I’m hoping Emma and I can help people to feel that the next steps are clear and achievable throughout the consultation process.
FWA: What are you most looking forward to about working with writers as they write and refine their short fiction in this course?
LN: Emma and I are both really excited to create a safe and buzzy learning environment. I love reading people’s work and I love talking about craft. I always learn so much from others when I teach so I’m looking forward to that too.
Writing Short Fiction
with Lucy Nelson, Emma Hislop and guest editor Anna Thwaites
ONLINE
13 August – 10 December 2026
Thursday evenings, 6:30pm – 8:30pm (AEST/AEDT)