Novella Writing with Órfhlaith Foyle

Course Summary

A novella is a compact hybrid of the short story and the novel. It contains the intensity of short fiction with the deep dive of novel writing and lies withing the word count of 30,000 to 50,000 words.

So many novellas are mistakenly corralled with novels. The works selected below are all classified as novellas.

These will be examined in depth for each week’s workshop with a recap on previous workshop sessions in the eight week. A section is given to participants to read before each workshop and each week a different aspect of writing a novella will be examined.

Novellas featured include:

Passing by Nella Larsen

Snow Country by Yasunari Kwawbata

Cane by Jean Toomer

Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

Foster by Clare Keegan

Writers will choose two novellas from the list below to read over the eight weeks:

The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins

Guided Tours of Hell by Francine Prose

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

This course is part of the IWC’s Meridian professional development series for writers

Course Outline

Week One:

Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers

Week Two:

Passing by Nella Larson

Week Three:

Foster by Claire Keegan

Week Four:

Wild Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Week Five:

Snow Country by Kawabata Yasunari

Week Six:

Cane by Jean Toomer

Week Seven:

At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop

Week Eight:

The Novella’s World

A recap on previous workshop sessions.

Workshop participants will read opening sections of their own novella WIP.

What is your future writing process for this work?

Course Outcomes

Writers will have studied/read various novella works, experimented with their own novella ideas, developed a main character and outlined their own novella.

Writers will choose two novellas from the list to read over the eight weeks for their enjoyment and inspiration, and discussion throughout the eight weeks.

Órfhlaith Foyle is a short story writer, poet, dramatist, and lives in Galway. Doire Press will publish her third collection Three Houses in Rome in September 2023.  

She wrote and directed the radio dramas May’s End and How I Murdered Lucrezia, both adapted from her short fiction. Both received full BAI funding and premiered on Newstalk Radio in October 2021 and 2023. 

Órfhlaith received a full Arts Council Agility Award in 2021 to complete a first draft of Three Houses in Rome and was awarded a full Arts Council Literary Bursary in 2022 for her next work. 

Booked out? To be added to the waiting list for this course, please email info@irishwriterscentre.ie.