The Clarion Writers’ Workshop is a sort of bootcamp for science fiction and fantasy writers. You write something like six stories in six weeks, critique your fellow students’ stories for several hours every day, and get a new instructor every week who combines lectures, workshops and one-on-one meetings. It’s all held on UC San Diego’s beautiful La Jolla campus.
The workshop has is open for applications, and this year’s instructors are Jeffrey Ford, Marjorie Liu, Ted Chiang, Walter Jon Williams, Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. I’m a Clarion grad (1992) and instructor, and I am a volunteer board member for the Clarion Foundation, which oversees the workshop. Clarion isn’t for everyone, and you can certainly develop your writing without Clarion, but when Clarion works for a writer, it really works. It really made me the writer I am today.
You’ve got until March 1st to send in two short stories and a letter explaining your reasons for applying.