The 2026 Workshops & Instructor Announcements!
Novel Writing Workshop
Our sincerest thanks to the amazing Samit Basu for kicking off our first Novel Writing Workshop and working with our first class of novelers!
Clarion West will be opening applications for our second nine-month virtual workshop in October! The workshop will run from March – November 2026.
Our second Novel Writing Workshop will be led by Karen Lord!
Learn more about the Novel Writing Workshop and watch for updates here.
Six-Week Workshop
The Clarion West Six-Week workshop will be virtual again in 2026, continuing with the updated virtual format designed to give students more time to write, additional lecture time with instructors, and more experimentation with workshopping models.
We’re pleased to announce the 2026 instructors:
The Clarion West 2026 Six-Week Workshop will take place from June 21 – August 1, 2026.
Applications for the 2026 Workshop are planned to open December 1, 2025. Each year, Clarion West is able to provide full and partial scholarships to a significant number of applicants, thanks to our generous community of donors and sponsors.
Founded in 1971, Clarion West holds a six-week workshop each summer geared toward helping writers of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) at the beginnings of their professional careers. Each workshop is limited to 15–18 students, and each week features a different instructor, a highly-regarded author or editor offering a unique perspective on the field. Applicants and students come from everywhere in the world, and graduates frequently go on to professional success.
At Clarion West, we’ve seen how new workshopping models in the classroom can improve students’ overall experience. We’ve found that virtual students benefit from additional training and downtime; this schedule offers more opportunities for the class to get to know each other, gain additional expertise with unfamiliar workshop models, and stay caught up with the thousands of words they’ll be writing and reading in a summer. This updated virtual format will be more accessible and will allow us to better practice our core values.
If you’re interested in learning more about our housing situation and our decision to alternate virtual and in-person workshop years, click here.
