This workshop guides you through a range of bespoke writing exercises in order to generate the raw material for a short story. First you will identify a character and begin to flesh them out through consideration of a central desire as well as a problem or obstacle they must face. You will then create a three-dimensional setting in which to place your character. Finally, you will be encouraged to find your character’s authentic voice by placing them in a dialogue.

Catherine Chidgey is a multiple award-winner whose novels have achieved international acclaim. The Axeman’s Carnival and Pet were number one bestsellers. Remote Sympathy was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her debut, In a Fishbone Church, won Best First Book at both the New Zealand Book Awards and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (South-East Asia and South Pacific region). It also won the Betty Trask Award and was longlisted for the Orange Prize. Her second novel, Golden Deeds, was a Notable Book of the Year in the New York Times Book Review and a Best Book in the LA Times. The Axeman’s Carnival and The Wish Child both won the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction – New Zealand’s most prestigious literary award. Other honours include the Prize in Modern Letters, the Katherine Mansfield Award, the Katherine Mansfield Fellowship, the Janet Frame Fiction Prize, and the Nielsen Independent New Zealand Bestseller award. Catherine Chidgey lives in Ngāruawāhia and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato. Her new novel, The Book of Guilt, is due out in May 2025.

Fee: NZSA Members – $35. (Non-members – $65)

Bookings for this workshop have closed as it has reached capacity

• Please note that the Webworkshop is held on Zoom.