This masterclass is designed to give beginner writers an overview of short story writing. They’ll also understand the key elements of what makes a short story great – how to hone setting, character, plot, point of view, dialogue, scene, description and word choice.

Niq Mhlongo is a South African novelist, short story writer, travel journalist, essayist, editor and educator who graduated from Wits University with a BA in African Literature and Political Studies in 1997. He has written five novels: Dog Eat Dog (2004), After Tears (2007), Way Back Home (2013), Paradise in Gaza (2020) and The City is Mine (2024). and three short story collections: Affluenza (2016), Soweto: Under the Apricot Tree (2018), For You, I’d Steal a Goat (2022). He is the editor of short story anthologies Joburg Noir (2020) and Hauntings (2021).

A Beginner’s Guide to Short Story Writing with Niq Mhlongo