The 2026 Greg Bear Memorial Instructorship
A matching challenge!
We’re pleased to announce that donors Astrid Bear and Jeff and Bonney Lemkin are once again offering a $2,500 matching challenge to help fund the 2026 Greg Bear Memorial Instructorship — and we’re asking the community to take up the challenge to raise the remaining $2,500 to fully support the fund this year.
Greg taught for the Clarion West Six-Week Workshop three times, in 1988, 1993, and 1999. His fiction spanned many genres and his short fiction was often beautiful, thought-provoking, and far reaching in scope. For Clarion West, few instructors embody the impact of generations of writers learning, teaching, and supporting each other more.
When we think about generations, we think about the authors who give back by supporting scholarships, volunteering, and mentoring new writers, as well as the students who go on to write successfully and return to teach for the workshop in their own time.
In the spirit of Greg’s contributions to the workshop, we are thrilled to bring new instructors to the Clarion West community.
The Greg Bear Memorial Instructorship will support Week Six with instructor Rebecca Roanhorse. Rebecca Roanhorse is a New York Times bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer. She has published multiple award-winning short stories and novels, including two novels in The Sixth World Series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and the Hugo-nominated epic fantasy trilogy Between Earth and Sky. She was the guest editor of America’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy (2023), a contributor to the New York Times “100 Best Books of the 21st Century”, and a judge for the Ursula K. LeGuin Prize for Fiction (2025). She has also written for Marvel comics and games, and her TV writing credits include FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, the Marvel series Echo for Disney+, and Netflix series animation. She has had her own work optioned by Paramount, Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios.
While the workshop this year is virtual, Rebecca will be coming to Seattle on July 23 for a reading and conversation with Clarion West Week Two Instructor, Tara Campbell.
Your donations have a critical impact on our ability to bring these talented writers, editors, and instructors to our workshops. All contributions support the Six-Week Workshop and the instructors, students, and staff who make it happen.