Writing Workshops

The Art of the Very Short Story with James Yeh

$175

2 sessions

In stock

Saturday & Sunday 1:00 pm EDT - 4:00 pm EDT November 8 to November 9, 2025

The Center for Fiction

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This two-day weekend intensive aims to uncover bold and unusual approaches to the very short story. Using close readings and writing prompts drawn from a selection of classic and lesser-known work, participants will be emboldened to apply these techniques to their own work and literary practice, and leave the workshop having written a piece that is ready for revision.

Writing we’ll explore will include: allegories, aphorisms, artist statements, fables, feuilletons, micromemoirs, parables, reviews, and reports (nearly all under 1,000 words, some as short as a single line) by writers such as Joy Williams, Franz Kafka, Leonora Carrington, Diane Williams, Jorge Luis Borges, Hebe Uhart, Robert Walser, James Hannaham, Osama Alomar, Clarice Lispector, Lydia Davis, Eugene Lim, Amy Hempel, John Cage, Anne Carson, and others.

Course Outline:

On Day One, students will examine and experiment with forms and approaches for “looking out,” including insect studies by Clarice Lispector and Robert Musil; incidents by Diane Williams, Joy Williams, and Thomas Bernhard; dispatches and reviews by Hebe Uhart and Eugene Lim; and anecdotes and aphorisms by Franz Kafka and John Cage, alongside permission-granting texts on craft by Anne Lamott and Lydia Davis. Students will have multiple opportunities to try their hand at their own short short pieces and share them with the group for immediate feedback.
On Day Two, students will examine and experiment with forms and approaches for “looking in,” including job applications and artist statements by Robert Walser, Lydia Davis, and James Hannaham; parables and fables by Leonora Carrington and Osama Alomar; and micromemoirs by Amy Hempel, Jorge Luis Borges, Etgar Keret, and Anne Carson, alongside a craft essay by George Saunders on revision. As with Day One, students will have multiple opportunities to share their work with the group, and we will go over some approaches for editing our own work.

Teaching Style: My teaching style is aimed at empowering students and demystifying the act of writing so that they may more clearly understand how writing gets made, and the writerly habits and practices that foster this work. I seek to impart practical approaches on the level of craft and process, alongside generative readings, writing prompts, and editorial feedback, drawn from years as a writing instructor at Columbia University, a seasoned editor in media and literary publishing, and my own experience as a working writer and journalist. Students can expect to come away with new approaches to writing, editing, and reading, as well as—I hope—a greater sense of agency, confidence, and perspective to pursue their own work.

Level: Intended for Intermediate to Advanced, but all levels welcome.

This course will be held in person at The Center for Fiction.

Led by

James Yeh

James Yeh

James Yeh is a writer, editor, journalist, and educator. His nonfiction appears in the New York Times, New York magazine, the Guardian, The Believer, and Columbia Journalism Review. His fiction appears in the Drift, McSweeney’s Quarterly, NOON, Tin House, and Dissent. His work was cited as notable in The Best American Essays 2022 and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011, and has been supported by The Center for Fiction, MacDowell, Hub City Writers Project, and VCCA. Formerly, he was an editor at McSweeney’s Quarterly, The Believer, and VICE, where stories he edited were selected for The Best American Short Stories 2024 and the 2024 O. Henry Prize Winners. He currently teaches writing at Columbia University.

Photo Credit: Jessica Parks

About this series

Writing Workshops

We strive to make our classes the most inviting and rewarding available, offering an intimate environment to study with award-winning, world-class writers. Each class is specially designed by the instructor, so whether you’re a fledgling writer or an MFA graduate polishing your novel, you’ll find a perfect fit here.

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