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Announcing our 2023 Octavia E. Butler and Worldbuilder Scholars!

Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Recipient This summer, the Carl Brandon Society selected Kiran Kaur Saini as its Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship recipient. Since 2007, the Carl Brandon Society has donated this scholarship in Octavia’s name to writers of color attending Clarion and Clarion West. Octavia attended the Clarion Writers Workshop in Pennsylvania in…

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Octavia E. Butler honored with a street in her name

On Saturday, July 29th, 2023, friends, former neighbors, and fans of acclaimed science fiction author Octavia E. Butler gathered at the intersection of NE 165th Street and 37th Avenue NE in Lake Forest Park to celebrate the renaming of the stretch of 37th Avenue NE to “Octavia Butler Avenue.” Octavia spent her final years on…

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Announcing Clarion West’s 2024 Six-Week Summer Workshop Instructors

On Tuesday, during N.K. Jemisin’s hybrid reading from Astoria Bookshop in New York, Clarion West’s Workshop Facilitator, María Alejandra Barrios, announced our instructors for the upcoming 2024 Six-Week Summer Workshop! The Clarion West 2024 Six-Week Summer Workshop will take place from June 16 – July 27, 2024. Applications for the 2024 Six-Week Workshop are planned…

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Clarion West is Delighted to Announce a $10,000 Donation Toward 2024 Workshop Housing

Clarion West is delighted to announce a generous donation of $10,000 from David D. Levine (CW ’00). We are incredibly grateful for David’s support toward workshop housing. Clarion West hopes to be in person in 2024 and has a tentative hold on accessible housing on the beautiful University of Washington campus! More information will be…

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Seattle’s Speculative Fiction Writing Workshops Join Forces

Writing the Other and Clarion West, two Seattle-based writing organizations, announce the beginning of a new partnership.  Clarion West will serve as the fiscal sponsor for Writing the Other, as the organizations explore partnership opportunities and shared resource development. Fiscal sponsorship will enable the two mission-aligned organizations to share resources, which keeps administrative expenses down….

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Interviews with Samit Basu, Sagan Yee (CW ’21), and Fawaz Al-Matrouk (CW ’21)

This year, in lieu of our usual Spring Seventh Week newsletter, we decided to feature a few interviews from our Clarion West Six-Week Workshop community! We’re excited to share a conversation with Week 3 instructor Samit Basu, where he discusses his work, publishing journey, and what he’s looking forward to with Clarion West. We’ve also…

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Meet Charis Loke — Our 2023 Summer Poster Artist!

One of our favorite traditions here at Clarion West is working with a new artist each year to create both our Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy reading series poster and Write-a-thon art. This year, we are thrilled to feature the work of Charis Loke, a phenomenal illustrator whose art you may have seen gracing…

Register for 2023 Write-a-thon!!!

We are now open for 2023 Write-a-thon registrations!!! The Write-a-thon is a great opportunity to make progress on your writing goals in community, while participating in fun sprints, classes, social hours, and more. It’s also our biggest fundraiser of the year — we’ll share with you everything you need to take off! Registration for the…

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Final Report on Clarion West’s Evolving Workshop Culture Project

The Clarion West Writers Workshop was founded on the belief that writers from diverse backgrounds need an opportunity to be heard — and to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Clarion West has historically been successful in reaching women writers and LGBTQIA+ writers, and many of our graduates are actively publishing in the field.  With…

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Introducing the Clarion West Class of 2023!

After another overwhelming response to our call for applications, we have selected a class of fifteen students for Clarion West’s 2023 Six-Week Virtual Workshop. The selected class includes students in Ghana, the U.K. by way of Pakistan, Brazil, the Bahamas, Mexico, and the United States.  We can’t wait to get to know them better and…