These pieces were all written on the Comma Press Short Story Course facilitated by Sarah Schofield at Liverpool’s Bluecoat Centre for the Contemporary Arts. The group met once a month for six months. Each session involved some critique from peers and the tutor of their own work, a close look at examples of stories from other writers as well as theory and practice of the craft of the three short story types – epical, lyrical and artifice. The writers who attended the course came from different writing backgrounds. Some had written a great deal before, others had little or no experience of writing their own work. But all came with a passion and curiosity about short fiction.