Clarion West Alumni News for July 2018

Wait, what? It’s July!?

It’s true; the year is officially half over. The Summer Workshop is half over, too, and the talented Class of 2018 is starting to feel the effects of four sustained weeks of learning, writing, reading, and socializing. There’s more excitement to come before the end, though!

The 2018 Write-a-thon is going strong. We hope all you Write-a-thonners have managed to focus and meet your goals over the past three weeks. We know there are a lot of distractions in the world this year, but your fiction, too, is more important than ever. Race on toward the finish line.

A reminder: We are currently taking flash fiction submissions from CW alumni until the end of the Write-a-thon too. And we’re paying pro rates!

For those of you cheering from the sidelines, know that our intrepid writers are still offering some fantastic sponsor rewards if you throw some encouragement their way. Here’s a compiled list of all the sponsor rewards we found — check them out and score yourself a Tuckerization or some other creative rewards (a personalized poem? a personality test? a free Tarot reading?) before the end of Week Six.

Just a reminder of our remaining summer events:

– Karen Joy Fowler will be reading at the Seattle Central Library on Tuesday, July 17, at 7pm.
– Ellen Datlow will be reading at the University Bookstore on Tuesday, July 24, at 7pm.
– Evan J. Peterson is hosting a Write-a-thon meetup at Friday Afternoon Tea on Thursday, July 26, from 5-8pm.
– We are continuing to hold our Sunday writing meetups at Cafe Racer from 12-2pm, hosted by me.

Alumni News

Clarion West has won a Locus Award! This year, Locus Magazine has honored us with their first ever Special Award for Community Building and Inclusivity. Workshop Director Neile Graham and board member Nisi Shawl accepted the award for us on June 23. Yay, us!

Mimi Mondal (CW ’15) and her co-editor Alexandra Pierce also won a Locus Award for their anthology Luminous Threads: Connections to Octavia E. Butler. Contributors to the book include: K. Tempest Bradford (CW ’03); Stephanie Burgis (CW ’01); Christopher Caldwell (CW ’07); Indrapramit Das (CW ’12); Stephen Gold (CW ’05); Alex Jennings (CW ’03); Cat Rambo (CW ’05); Jeremy Sim (CW ’11); Nisi Shawl (CW ’92); Rachel Swirsky (CW ’05); and Sheree Renée Thomas (CW ’99). The anthology has also been shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award.

Daniel Abraham (CW ’98) achieved the much-coveted goal of returning to teach at the Clarion West Six-Week Workshop as an instructor. He was this year’s Week One instructor.

Adele Gardner (CW ’04) has had two speculative poems published: “Emily Dickinson, Time Traveler” appears in Space and Time: The Magazine of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction. “In the Vaults” appears in Pedestal Magazine. The latter is the third in her “Cold Storage” series of poems — the earlier two can be found here and here. In addition, her story “All in Green” has been published in Dimension6. It’s set in the same universe as her Week Four Clarion West story.

Maura McHugh (CW ’06) has a story called “SPA Day” in 2000 AD, a British comic anthology. It is drawn by Emma Vieceli, colored by Barbara Nosenzo, and lettered by Ellie De Ville. Also, her book Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has been nominated for a BFS British Fantasy Award in the non-fiction category.

The July/August issue of Analog contains stories by Andy Duncan (CW ’94), Kris Dikeman (CW ’05), James Robert Herndon (CW ’12), and a translation by Rich Larson (CW ’14).

Octavia Cade (CW ’16) has a story in Asimov’s this month called “The Backward Lens of Compromise.”

Mark Galarrita (CW ’17), has a meaningful new essay in Electric Literature: “A Writer Learns to Die.”

Eden Robins (CW ’08) has an essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books: “What Killmonger Can Teach America About Heroism.”

Emma Törzs (CW ’17) has a new story, “From the Root,” in Lightspeed. This story was written during Clarion West.

Gordon White (CW ’17) conducted a feature interview in this month’s Nightmare Magazine with speculative poet Linda D. Addison.

Malcolm Devlin, a.k.a. Vince Haig (CW ’13), has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for his collection You Will Grow Into Them.

Stephanie Malia Morris (CW ’17) has a new story in Apex Magazine: “The Chariots, the Horsemen.”

Chinelo Onwualu (CW ’14) and her work have been featured in a special interview at Strange Horizons.

Congratulations, all! Send in your news for next month, and thank you for being part of the Clarion West community!