"For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." Sonny’s Blues (James Baldwin)
Part craft-intensive and part analytical reading group, Close Readings of the Truths of Realism is a six-week workshop designed to elevate participants’ fluency with the mechanics of realism in literary fiction. Moving beyond basic plot analysis, this workshop approaches masterwork short stories through the lens of the writer-architect: dissecting how form, technique, and narrative turns coalesce to create an undeniable sense of emotional and existential truth.
Whether you are refining an active draft or looking to sharpen your critical eye, this workshop examines how the invisible machinery of fiction generates what we will define as the story's “Unit of Affect”—that unified emotional weight, literary conviction, and intellectual resonance that lingers long after the final sentence.
The Method: Deconstruction & Application
Each week, we will deconstruct one masterly short story, analyzing it not merely as readers but as craft practitioners, breaking down the execution of realism in literary fiction. Our investigations will focus on two primary axes:
1) Techniques of Realism: Creative character continuity, language, symbolism, juxtaposition, motifs, planting and connecting, ecstatic syntax, sensory detail, world-building, etc.
2) The Six Categories of Narrative Turns in Realism: We will map how each story leverages the essential provocations of narrative trajectory:
Category I: Disruption & Provocation (Turns of World)
Category II: Temporal Excavations (Turns of Time)
Category III: Existential Shifts (Turns of Self)
Category IV: Relational Friction (Turns of Society)
Category V: Epistemological Disclosure (Turns of Truth)
Category VI: Concluding Gravity (Turns of Consequence)
Course Structure & Syllabus
Because each session is built around a self-contained deep-dive into a specific text, the workshop offers flexibility for busy writers while maintaining a cohesive arc.
Week 1: "Salvador Late or Early" by Sandra Cisneros & "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
Week 2: "A Wall of Fire Rising" by Edwidge Danticat
Week 3: "The Wind" by Lauren Groff
Week 4: The Adulterous Woman" by Albert Camus
Weeks 5 & 6: A dedicated two-week masterclass on James Baldwin’s "Sonny's Blues"
The Outcome
At the conclusion of each session, writers will translate analysis into practice by identifying one major technical takeaway to apply immediately or locate in their own ongoing work.
By the end of this six-week workshop, participants will leave with:
1) A sharper, highly analytical eye for reading like a writer.
2) An expanded understanding of technical moves in literary fiction—from syntax to structural turns.
3) Practical, actionable methods from examples to make the realism in their own drafts feel truer, deeper, and more emotionally resonant.
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C.I. Aki is a poet, essayist, editor, filmmaker, and educator based in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his B.A. in Rhetoric and Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and his Masters in Theology and Philosophy at Vanderbilt Divinity School with a focus on critical theory. In 2012, Aki published his first short story, “A Withering Scar, a Thin Pin-Striped Suit, and 1,000 Judgments,” in 34th Parallel Magazine. 2014 he premiered his first short film, "The Runner," at the Capital City Black Film Festival. In 2015, he was a recipient of Vanderbilt’s Imagination Grant to carry out research in Spain for an ongoing documentary on flamenco he is producing. In 2017, Aki self-published an experiment in fiction and philosophy titled After Esther: The Red Book, an attempt to flesh out the ideas of love, desire, and difference he culminated in his master’s thesis at Vanderbilt.
Aki's debut collection of poems, The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast on April Gloaming Publishing, was released in May 2021 and ranked #3 by Readers Digest’s Top 14 Black Poets to Read in 2021. His monograph, "The Freedom of Color: Harouna Ouédraogo Paints the Future Freely Black," on the artwork of Burkina Faso painter Harouna Ouédraogo, was published by The Denver Quarterly Literary Magazine in 2022. Aki currently serves as one of the poetry editors for Waxing and Waning Literary Magazine and teaches English at Montgomery Bell Academy. You can follow him on Instagram @ soul_lit_writer and signup for his newsletter: forthenoones.substack.com.
"C.I.'s facilitation and pedagogy made the workshop interactive and immersive. He provided space for us to analyze and apply work, but also gave us great feedback and takeaways as we venture further into realism. Thankful for this class and its impact it will have on my storytelling."
"This was a fantastic class that taught and reviewed many of the creative writing tools and techniques I learned in high school, long, long ago. C.I. was a great teacher and the exercises were effective in demonstrating the techniques we learned."
