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Thursday 3 July 2003
Clarion Funding Lost
Clarion, the long-running workshop for beginning SF and fantasy writers, has lost its funding from Michigan State University. Dr. Lister Matheson, Director of the Workshop, has received word from the Interim President and Provost of MSU that the university, which has hosted Clarion for the past 30 years or so, will be unable to continue its support.
Workshop administrators have issued a plea to the SF community to express their support for the workshop, whose graduates include
Bruce Sterling, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kelly Link, Cory Doctorow, James Patick Kelly, Ted Chiang, Lucius Shepard, Eileen Gunn, Nalo Hopkinson, and many others. Eileen Gunn writes, in an editorial in The Infinite Matrix,
Clarion's funding has been threatened in the past, and successfully defended. It may still be possible to save it if enough messages from writers and readers are received by the heads of the college. It is possible that an out-pouring of support for Clarion will encourage the MSU to reconsider this action. I encourage the readers of The Infinite Matrix to send an email to MSU's Interim President and Provost, Dr. Lou Anna K. Simon at laksimon@msu.edu, and the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Dr. Wendy K. Wilkins at wwilkins@msu.edu. Please copy any messages to clarion@msu.edu.
Update, July 4: The Infinite Matrix has posted this update, which includes letters sent to Michigan State University by Carter Scholz, Cory Doctorow, and others.
Links
Clarion The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Workshop
June 26, 2003 MSU News Bulletin about Clarion
June News
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