A Word Before You Choose
A short story is a kind of time capsule. In a handful of pages, a writer must do what a novelist has hundreds to accomplish.
Conjuring a whole world, a life, a revelation - and so every word has to earn its place. That economy is the art of it. Nothing wasted, nothing idle; a single image or line asked to carry enormous weight. To read a great short story is to watch a writer work at the very edge of what can be done with very little.
There’s a particular joy in it, too. A short story you can read in an evening, think over for a week, and discuss with friends.
Short fiction rewards attention. We’d suggest reading each story twice. The first time, simply let it carry you, and take away whatever it gives you. Then come back and read more slowly - asking questions, noticing which moments bear weight, wondering what the writer intended, considering the world they lived in. Multiple readings can allow for richer discovery.
The Path to the Scriptorium
01
Select a Collection
Choose between our curated 'All Ages' or 'Teen & Up' volumes, each a portal to a different world of wonder and discovery.
02
Choose a Format
Read by post or on screen. Physical subscribers receive a beautifully made keepsake volume in the mail. Digital subscribers receive the volume as a PDF delivered to their inbox.
03
Choose Your Plan
Pay monthly, save with a quarterly subscription, or save more with the full year up front.
04
Settle In
Enter your details, and your first volume is on its way. Welcome to the Scriptorium.
The Current Collections
The Hearthside
Stories the whole family can share
A welcoming first collection, gathered for the whole household.
Inside you’ll find fairy tales and fables, adventures across forests and seas, stories with quiet wisdom and a little mischief — the kind of tales meant to be read aloud and wondered about the next day.
Short enough for an evening, deep enough to return to.
These are stories chosen so that a young reader and a grown one can find their own meaning in the same page.
Recommended for readers 7 and up.
The Lantern
A wider world, brightly lit.
Heading 4
Recommended for readers 13 and up.
The next step out — stories for readers ready to follow a tale further into the world.
Adventure across unfamiliar landscapes, mysteries to puzzle through, comedies with real bite, the eerie and the heartfelt and the surprising. A wider tonal range, and characters with more depth and ambiguity.
These stories ask a little more of the reader, and give more in return.
MORE ON THE WAY
We’re at work on additional collections for older teens and adult readers — fiction with more shadow, more depth, more searching. Gothic tales, sharp satire, literary stories of inner lives, and the canon of short fiction at its most daring.
If any of that calls to you, and follow us on social.