Prose Fiction Workshop with Yan Ge – Now Open for Applications
Are you a Leeds-based writer who wants to develop their skills, or even to have a go for the first time? Read on for an excellent opportunity to hone your skills with an experienced tutor and award-winning author.
As part of her role as a Cheney Creative Fellow at the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing, University of Leeds, award-winning author and creative writing tutor Yan Ge is running a free prose fiction workshop, designed for new and emerging fiction writers in Leeds, whether they are starting out or have been developing a project for some time.
What to expect
The workshop will bring together up to five writers and will consist of four sessions, each lasting 80 minutes.
In each session, we will read and discuss the work of two to three participants, with each piece of writing up to 2,000 words. Every writer will have the opportunity to submit work twice and receive feedback from Yan Ge and the group.
The first two sessions will take place in person in the 4F foyer of the Michael Sadler Building at the University of Leeds, from 1:30 to 4:20 pm on Saturday 17 October 2026.
The remaining two sessions will take place either in person or online, likely in January 2027, depending on the group’s preference and availability.
The workshop is fully funded by the Cheney Creative Fellowship and is free to all successful applicants.
How to apply
To apply, please send:
- A cover letter of up to 200 words, introducing yourself and your writing
- A writing sample of up to 1,000 words
Please send your application to [email protected] by 5 pm on 25th September, 2026 (UK time)
Successful applicants will be notified by 5th October, 2026
All applications should be formatted in Times New Roman, 12-point font, and double-spaced.
Please use ‘Leeds Workshop Application’ as the email subject line.
About The Tutor
Yan Ge is a fiction writer in both Chinese and English, and is the author of fourteen books in Chinese, including six novels. She has received numerous awards and was named by People’s Literature magazine as one of the twenty future literature masters in China. Her work has been translated into eleven languages, including English, French and German. The latest English translation of her novel, Strange Beasts of China, was one of the New York Times Notable Books of 2021.
Yan’s English writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Irish Times, Granta (online), the Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she was the recipient of the UEA International Award 2018/19. She was a MacDowell fellow in 2022. Her English language debut short story collection Elsewhere was published by Faber in the UK and Scribner in the USA in 2023 and was one of the New Yorker Best Books of the Year.
Throughout the years, Yan has taught creative writing courses and master classes at institutions such as the Arvon Foundation, Moniack Mhor, the National Centre for Writing, the Stinging Fly, the University of East Anglia and Trinity College Dublin, among others. She is the founder of the bilingual literary mentoring platform, Parallel Words.