Clarion South
Clarion is an intensive six week workshop for writers preparing for a professional career in speculative fiction. Oh, and did I mention it's intense? Clarion has been described as "boot camp" for speculative fiction writers and this is the first time a workshop of this kind has been available in Australia.
Format
Clarion works like this: Each week for six weeks a different professional writer conducts the workshop. The resident writer also lives on campus and is continuously available. Mornings are devoted to critiquing manuscripts in a workshop setting; afternoons, evenings, and weekends are devoted to individual writing, conferences with the writer-in-residence, oh and occasionally social activities. Participants produce new work and continuously receive feedback on the structure, style and substance of their writing.
Participants
People of all ages (well, all ages over 18 years), backgrounds, nationalities, occupations, musical tastes and football codes are encouraged to apply to Clarion South. We welcome you. However, keep one thing in mind. This is not a workshop for beginners. It is has been designed to fill a niche for those emerging speculative fiction writers who lack opportunities to meet with their peers and polish their craft. Bearing that in mind, some of the most influential spec fic writers of the last 30 years have been graduates of Clarion, including Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, Vonda McIntyre, Octavia Butler, George Alec Effinger and Nalo Hopkinson. If you're serious about joining them, you could do worse than go to Clarion.
History
The Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop is one of the most highly regarded science fiction writing workshop in the world. It was established in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania. The workshop was modelled on the successful tradition of mutual criticism used at the Milford Science Fiction Writers' Conference for professional SF writers. After a number of years, Clarion found a new home at Michigan State University and a second workshop, Clarion West was founded in Seattle. (The Michigan workshop then became nicknamed "Clarion East")
In 2002, a new organisation was established in Queensland, Australia to bring the Clarion experience to the Southern Hemisphere. Tthe first Clarion South workshop will commence in January 2004.
Both the original Clarion and Clarion West have a strong history of attracting top names in the genre to tutor at the workshop. These have included:
Ben Bova
Connie Willis
Damon Knight
Elizabeth Hand
Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
Gene Wolfe
George Alec Effinger
George R. R. Martin
Gordon Van Gelder
Greg Bear
Gwyneth Jones
Harlan Ellison
Joe Haldeman
John Crowley
Karen Joy Fowler
Kate Wilhelm
Lucius Shepard
Lucy Sussex
Michael Swanwick
Nancy Kress
Nicola Griffith
Octavia Butler
Orson Scott Card
Pat Cadigan
Robert Silverberg
Roger Zelazny
Samuel R. Delany
Spider Robinson
Tim Powers
Ursula K. Le Guin
Vonda N. McIntyre
Clarion South's website is www.clarionsouth.org
