8 Week Workshop
The Novella Workshop with Daisuke Shen

March 3rd to April 28th, 2025
Mondays, 2:00pm to 4:30pm ET
8 Weeks • Fiction • Online • 14 Participants • 2 Instructors

During the past two years, Daisuke Shen has secured an agent and landed a publishing deal, all while writing innovative fiction. This course distills Daisuke's knowledge of contemporary literature, while also giving you extensive support and feedback on your writing, directly from Daisuke Shen.

During this course, you will explore the craft of writing a novella, get feedback on your writing, meet successful visiting authors, study innovative writing, and get personal guidance with the publication process.

As a special guest for this session of the course, that Ari Braverman will be joining as a co-teacher. Ari is a successful author and editor, with a novel published by Melville House, in addition to work published in a wide variety of literary journals. Ari is also an experienced and caring editor.

This course is focused on providing you with detailed, personal feedback as you write the first draft of a novella (up to 20,000 words). As you write your novella, you'll submit 2,500 words at a time. Daisuke or Ari will then respond with a detailed letter, with advice and notes designed to help you move forward with your project.

Once you've written all 20,000 words, your instructor will then give you editorial notes designed to help you polish your work, and prepare it for publication. Daisuke and Ari will also recommend publishers who may be a good fit for your project.

Novellas have always been a popular form throughout literary history, and this popularity continues to surge in recent years for readers and publishers alike. Among the many innovative and award-winning writers of the novella include writers such as P. Djeli Clark, Hiroko Oyamada, Kathryn Scanlan, Olga Ravn, all of whom have found success in pushing the boundaries of storytelling through this exciting form.

Each week during the course, you will:

  • Get craft lessons and exercises designed to designed to help you experiment with new possibilities of form and structure.
  • Get personal feedback on up to 2,500 words of your work directly from Daisuke Shen. (For a total of 20,000 words.)
  • Learn more about opportunities within the indie publishing world.
  • Meet live with Daisuke Shen and classmates, so you can ask questions and discuss your work.
  • Have the chance to participate in live “write togethers” with the entire class.

This course is a wonderful fit for writers eager to produce new writing, develop their craft, experiment with innovative forms and structures, read examples from a variety of narrative traditions, and get in-depth professional feedback throughout the entire writing process.

Daisuke and Ari areoffering extensive feedback on student writing as part of this course. Each week you will have the opportunity to submit up to 2,500 words for feedback. This is in addtition to the regular meetings, check-ins, and text-based discussion with Daisuke.

Keep in mind that you will have a full six months to submit your work for feedback. (Giving you the flexibility you need to produce writing at the right pace for you.) Please note that our focus will be on creating a self-contained work, as opposed to working on previously-completed novel excerpts.

The course starts on March 3rd, 2025. Everything is hosted online. For those who need extra time, you will have a full six months to complete the course and submit your work for feedback.

Please note: Enrollment is strictly limited to just 10 participants. No exceptions. For those interested in participating, you are encouraged to enroll right away.

Enroll Now for $897 $725 (Early Bird Tuition)

What Daisuke Shen's Students Have to Say

“I highly recommend this novella writing workshop to anyone who intends to write a novella. Daisuke conducted the classes which were both informative and critical in developing the writer's skills further. Daisuke's feedback was commendable and encouraging. Thank you Daisuke.”

Helen Toraskar

“ The back-and-forth feedback through the weekly submissions, prompts, and posts helped propel me through this novella writing process. I wrote 40k in 8 weeks. Each time I got stuck, Daisuke's prompts 'unstuck' me. Their feedback was very helpful, picking up on subtle things I was trying to do and offering suggestions that were thoughtful and relevant”

Erin Swann

“Daisuke is a wonderful caring teacher, full of love and encouragement… The edits on my work were absolutely wonderful and to the point. I loved the edits, and the direction they gave me to expand the piece. ”

Radhika Iyer

“As for Daisuke, I can't sing their praises loud enough! The amount of editing they did to my work showed that they wanted to provide feedback, would not be content with a brief and cursory glance, and truly wanted to make me feel as if they had fully read and thought about what I wrote. Definitely what I hoped to see in an editor and I was not disappointed.”

Andrew Long

“Thank you Daisuke for your patient and encouraging way of teaching. I can tell you really care about your students' progress and I loved reading all of your thoughtful comments in the discussion. ”

Kate Grono

“Daisuke’s lecture and discussion materials presented a wonderfully nuanced vision of what a story can be. I truly appreciated this divergence from conventional—often cookie-cutter—approaches to teaching the story. Highly recommended.”

Greg Miller

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“I like Daisuke's teaching style. So very down to earth and real ... Daisuke had such great feedback to all the students' submissions. Praise was heart felt and suggestions and critiques were honest while being supportive. It was a privilege being part of this class. ”

Sandra Sullivan

Course Overview

During this eight week workshop, you'll get extensive feedback on your writing, study innovative forms and structures, meet successful visiting authors, and get personal guidance on the publication process.

  • Get extensive feedback on your manuscript every week of the course.

  • Study the art & craft of the novella, including a variety of narrative forms and structures

  • Meet successful visiting authors during live Zoom meetings

  • Get full access to live office hours with all of our instructors, even after the course has finished.

  • Full access to our private community of writers, so you can network with your fellow students.

Workshop Schedule

The course starts on Monday, March 3rd and ends on Friday, April 28th, 2025. Optional weekly Zoom meetings will be held on Mondays from 5pm to 6pm Eastern Time.. Everything is hosted online.

  • Weekly craft lessons, exercises, and live meetings.

  • Personal feedback via email and our online discussion platform.

  • A full six months to complete the course and submit your work for feedback.

Enroll Now

Enrollment is strictly limited to 10 participants.
Early bird tuition is available until March 1st.

About Daisuke Shen

Daisuke Shen is the author of the collaborative novella Funeral with Vi Khi Nao (KERNPUNKT Press 2023). Their debut short story collection, Vague Predictions & Prophecies published in August 2024.

Their work has been published in numerous journals, including Autostraddle, Southwest Review, The Asian American Literary Review, Joyland Magazine, Maudlin House, Hobart After Dark, and more. They received his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2019, where they taught undergraduate creative writing courses for three years.

As a teacher, Daisuke is passionate about supporting his student’s visions for their writing and discusses the craft of fiction using different narrative traditions throughout the world. They are enthusiastic about providing students with resources, thoughtful feedback, and encouragement as they continue building their careers. You can read more of their work at www.daisukeshen.com.

About Ari Braverman

Ari Braverman is the author of the critically acclaimed The Ballad of Big Feeling (Melville House, 2020). Her work has appeared in BOMB, Guernica, the Believer, LARB, and the White Review.

Braverman graduated with her MFA from Columbia University, where she was a recipient of multiple fellowships. 

Ari has edited fiction for prominent literary magazines including Conjunctions, the Columbia Journal, and the New Orleans Review. 

She was born in Iowa and now lives between the East River and a Costco.