Clarion South
Clarion is an intensive six week workshop for writers preparing for a professional career in speculative fiction. 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 operates as follows: Each week for six weeks a different professional writer leads 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, and occasionally social activities. Participants produce new work and continuously receive feedback on the structure, style and substance of their writing.
Participants
Participants of every age (well, aged 18 and over), origin, nation, profession, musical preference and sports code are invited to submit applications to Clarion South. We're delighted to have you. That said, there's something to bear in mind. This isn't a course for those just starting out. It's been created to serve a specific gap for budding speculative fiction authors who don't have avenues to connect with fellow writers and refine their skills. With that in view, some of the most significant spec fic authors over the past three decades have counted themselves among Clarion's alumni, such as Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, Vonda McIntyre, Octavia Butler, George Alec Effinger and Nalo Hopkinson. If you're committed to standing alongside them, you'd be hard pressed to find a better path than Clarion.
History
The Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop ranks among the world's most esteemed science fiction writing workshops. Founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania, the workshop drew inspiration from the established peer critique method practised at the Milford Science Fiction Writers' Conference for professional SF authors. Following several years of operation, Clarion relocated to Michigan State University, and Clarion West emerged as a sister workshop in Seattle. (The Michigan location subsequently became known as "Clarion East")
In 2002, a new organisation was established in Queensland, Australia to bring the Clarion experience to the Southern Hemisphere. The inaugural Clarion South workshop commenced in January 2004.
Both the original Clarion and Clarion West have maintained a strong tradition of hosting celebrated genre figures as tutors. These have encompassed:
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
