Six-Week Workshop Housing Information & Updates

The workshop is virtual in 2025. The board and staff continue to seek the best possible solutions to identify affordable housing for in-person workshops, and will continue to raise funds, seek partnerships, and consider opportunities for obtaining property in the Greater Seattle Area. We currently anticipate running a virtual workshop in 2026.

What can you do to help support our workshop residency efforts in Seattle?

• Check out the work that Common Area Maintenance is doing to save the El Rey Building in downtown Seattle and see if you can help support by signing the support letter and helping this building (with existing accessible residency spaces) become a lasting part of the Seattle arts community, and potentially a permanent home for Clarion West! You can read more about the project from this article in the Stranger.
• Do you know anyone who manages student housing or hospitality accommodations in the Greater Seattle area? We’d love to make some deeper connections!
• We are actively seeking partnerships with other nonprofit organizations in the Greater Seattle area with similar missions. Please reach out to our Executive Director if you are interested in partnerships or looking for similar housing opportunities. 
• Do you know a developer or city planner who is looking to anchor a new project with a core nonprofit tenant? Please connect us! 
• Are you an investor who is interested in student housing in Seattle? We’d love to be your long-term summer tenant. 
• Donations to the Clarion West general fund help the organization build capacity toward a future capital campaign. Please consider making a donation in any amount.
• If you have any further ideas or want to help in our search, please contact Marnee Chua at .

Due to the ongoing nature of this search, Clarion West has set an annual timeline to determine when a workshop can be held in person. Unless funds are raised prior to applications opening in December, the Six-Week Workshop will be held virtually. This means that we will know information about the status of the 2026 workshop by August 2025. You can check back here regularly to confirm the status of our housing search.

Keep reading to get a comprehensive idea of what we’re looking for and the challenges we’ve identified.

Clarion West has a long history of partnering with universities and organizations in the Seattle area to house the Six-Week Workshop. As we’ve honed in on what our students need for their workshop experience and focused on affordability, equity, and accessibility, the number of potential partners has narrowed. Even before the pandemic, we couldn’t secure a long-term agreement for housing.

Since 2020, several of our area housing partners have closed or consolidated. The cost of dormitory housing has significantly increased and is unsustainable for the long-term. 

How Do We Identify A Viable Location?

The board and staff are committed to finding an appropriate housing partner that can rent to the organization within our budget, is located near public transit, and is either already ADA accessible or is willing to partner with Clarion West to update to accessible accommodations. 

At a minimum, a workshop location needs to meet the following criteria: 

• Accommodations for 16–20 guests to have their own bedrooms. A mix of shared and private bathrooms is preferred*; 
• One or more common areas accessible to everyone for group meetings, study, and relaxation; 
• A classroom large enough for 22–23 people to sit comfortably around a table — within short walking distance, along accessible paths, from student housing; 
• A common dining area and kitchen or dining hall large enough for up to 25 people, within short walking distance, along accessible paths, from student housing; 
• Easy access to city-wide transit; 
• Walkable neighborhood with accommodations (a short walk to groceries, pharmacies, coffee shops, and other conveniences); 
• Locations outside of the City of Seattle and/or in rural/natural settings will be considered, however the cost savings, if any, for these locations must support higher staffing and transportation costs over the course of six weeks.

* If facilities are not already ADA accessible, Clarion West has funds for accessible build-out and is interested in long-term partners that will work with us to build fully accessible facilities.

Moving Forward

The organization seeks to offset the costs of the in person workshop by hosting the workshop virtually every other year. We’ve found that virtual workshops offer a unique set of benefits, along with new challenges. Our 2021 and 2023 virtual workshops have proven to be just as effective as our in-person workshop at connecting students and instructors, as well as creating amazing friendships and stories. Members of the Class of 2023 commented on their experience for our 2023 workshop report.

If a long-term residential location can be secured, the organization will continue to seek opportunities to offer virtual workshops in similar or more appropriate formats for those students who find it more accessible to their needs. In 2025, Clarion West has also launched the nine-month novel writing workshop and our efforts in offering a variety of formats will continue this year and beyond.

More information on virtual workshops:

• Virtual workshops are accessible to different demographics, including international students who cannot get visas or afford the high cost of the in-person workshop; parents/caretakers who cannot leave their homes for six weeks; writers with at-home care needs; and others who want to balance their regular schedule with the workshop.
• Though virtual formats are challenging in different ways than in-person ones, the virtual cohorts maintain strong connections after the workshop, and our virtual alumni are publishing stories at similar rates to other recent classes.
• The virtual workshop can be more accessible for instructors and staff (especially those who live outside of Seattle or the U.S.!) and reduces costs in other ways, especially with travel and the stress of transportation. Some of our instructors now prefer the virtual workshop, while others will always prefer to be in person.
• The virtual workshop is accomplishing two very important goals: when we hold the virtual workshop, we create opportunities for writers from all over the world who may not be able to attend a Six-Week Workshop in person, and we keep the workshop running despite the financial challenges of running a residential program.

There are a lot of benefits to running the Six-Week Workshop online. Thus the possibility of holding the workshop virtually every other year or on a regular basis is very much under consideration.

If you’d like to help us locate a future home for Clarion West and envision future programs more accessible to all: 

We continue to look for partners that can help secure a home for the Six-Week Workshop in Seattle as well as partners interested in developing programs that follow and enhance our Core Values.

We would love to make more connections and partnerships in the community. If you have an idea, or can offer help with this process, please reach out to Marnee Chua at .