In June, I presented a paper entitled ‘Short Fiction in a Digital World’ at the 2026 conference of the European Network for Short Story Research (ENSFR). I came to the subject via my current writing project, which is a series of stories following two sisters from the year 2000 to the present day. As the stories moved closer to the present, I began to wonder how we as fiction writers should respond to the incredible technological changes we’ve seen in the early 21st century. It has changed the way we live, the way we communicate and interact. Should it change the way we write? Andrea Marzocchi invited me to talk more about the question for his short story podcast A Small Good Thing. The episode is available to listen to here.
The first of these stories is published in The Manchester Review #29. It’s set in 2003 so there is no mention of tech. (Image © Darlene Alderson, Pexels.com)
Vicky Grut 