Clarion Workshop Reorganizes, Sets 2006 Plans

The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop, founded in 1968 and since then the best known and most highly regarded science fiction writing workshop in the US, has reorganized, and announced plans to return next year to Michigan State University.

Clarion will now be administered by the non-profit Clarion Foundation, which this past week achieved tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) corporation. The Board of Directors includes Chair Kate Wilhelm, Vice Chair James Patrick Kelly, Treasurer Nancy Etchemendy, and Secretary Leslie What, as well as Walter Jon Williams, Karen Joy Fowler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kelly Link and Cory Doctorow.

Plans have been announced for the 2006 workshop, which will run from June 26 to August 4 and will be taught by Samuel R. Delany, Gardner Dozois, Nancy Kress, Joe and Gay Haldeman and, as the traditional anchor team, Kelly Link and Holly Black. The workshop will be returning to Owen Hall where it was held from 1990-2003.

The application deadline for the 2006 workshop is April 1, 2006. Application information is available online at www.msu.edu/~clarion, by email, or by writing to the Clarion Workshop, 112 Olds Hall, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI 48824-1047.

Kate Wilhelm in a press release said, "We wanted to preserve the classic Clarion experience but saw the need to revamp some of what goes on behind the scenes. I was gratified that so many friends of Clarion volunteered to help. Now that we have official tax-exempt status, we will seek new funding sources and continue to improve the workshop."

Wilhelm recently published a memoir about her 27 years as a Clarion instructor, Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop, published by Small Beer Press in August.