Applications for Clarion 2018 Open Today! Fimfiction Scholarship Info! · 4:23am Dec 2nd, 2017
TL;DR: Some folks at fimfiction have again scraped together $785 $900 $1000 to give to any fimfiction writer who gets accepted this year at any of the most-prestigious American science fiction & fantasy writing workshops.
To quote from my 2013 post on the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing Workshop:
If you want to write fantasy or science fiction professionally, you should apply to Clarion. Clarion is to science fiction & fantasy what Harvard is to high-powered law firms and Wall Street bond traders. Like Harvard, it's a great learning experience, but that's not why you need to go. You need to go because saying you went to Clarion in your cover letter is like saying you went to Harvard on your resume. I spent years writing stories and getting dozens of photocopied rejection letters. After Clarion, I sold the first two stories I sent out to the first places I sent them out to.
Folks here made pledges then of--gosh, I think over $750--to help pay the tuition for any fimfiction writer who was accepted to Clarion.
But no one from fimfiction applied. Also, no one from fimfiction applied in 2014, 2015, 2016, or 2017.
This time, I might be posting early enough that someone will apply!
I'd like us to offer a fimfiction scholarship for Clarion, Clarion West, or Odyssey again. Clarion West and Odyssey are both 6-week SF&F writing workshops based on Clarion.
The terms this year:
- A writer qualifies for the fimfiction scholarship if they were registered for fimfiction as of Dec. 1 2017, and they have at least 2 stories published on fimfiction totaling at least 5,000 words, or 1 story on Equestria Daily, by March 1 2018.
- If anyone qualifies and is accepted to Clarion, Clarion West, or Odyssey in 2018, I'll post a blog saying who it is and where they're going. Donors will paypal money to the workshop, using an email address they can verify thru the workshop website. [In 2013, I had verbal agreements with each of the workshops that they could take money this way. I haven't checked back with them this year, but I'd be surprised if they can't.]
- To donate, post a comment on this blog saying "I will give $X by paypal to fund fimfiction writers to attend these writing workshops if one is accepted," where X >= 5.
- I'm not counting pledges made in 2013, so re-pledge if you still want to do it this year.
- This is not tax-deductible in the US, because you're donating to a specific person rather than to the workshop.
- I'll match all received contributions up to $200 if we have someone accepted to any of those 3 workshops.
If anybody would volunteer to make a banner ad saying something like "Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop Fimfiction Scholarship" suitable for fimfiction or EQD, or knows how to put a banner ad on fimfiction or EQD, or can sweet-talk knighty into advertising it for free, please comment or PM me.
To apply, you need to submit one or two short stories. (The details are different for each workshop.) Pony stories are allowed, but they'll be judged by a panel, and panel members may be jerks about fan-fiction at their own discretion. DO NOT SUBMIT PORN. Check the specific workshop for word count. Check my 2013 post for more info on why you should be excited about this.
Clarion: UC San Diego, June 24 - August 4, 2018
Applications close March 1, 2018
Clarion West: Seattle, June 17 – July 27, 2018
Applications close March 1, 2018
Odyssey: Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 4 through July 13, 2018
Early Action Application Deadline—Jan. 31, 2018
Regular Application Deadline—April 7, 2018 (application must be RECEIVED by then, via SNAIL MAIL)
From today's Clarion newsletter:
Applications for Clarion 2018 Open Today!
We're pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the 2018 Clarion Workshop starting today, December 1. To apply, start the process at http://clarion.ucsd.edu/apply.html.
The application period will remain open until March 1, 2018. To encourage candidates to apply early, we will again raise the application fee after February 15.
If you've been thinking about applying, it's time to start working on your two submission stories, whether you're writing them from scratch or polishing stories you've already written.
2018's Faculty Line-up
Christopher Barzak
Christopher Barzak is the author of the Crawford Fantasy Award winning novel, One for Sorrow, which has been made into the Sundance feature film Jamie Marks is Dead. His second novel, The Love We Share without Knowing, was a finalist for the Nebula Award and the James Tiptree Jr. Award. His most recent novel, Wonders of the Invisible World, was published by Knopf in 2015, and received the Stonewall Honor Award from the American Library Association. He is also the author of two collections: Birds and Birthdays, a collection of surrealist fantasy stories, and Before and Afterlives, a collection of supernatural fantasies, which won Best Collection in the 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards. Christopher grew up in rural Ohio. Currently he teaches fiction writing in the Northeast Ohio MFA program at Youngstown State University.
Holly Black
Holly Black is the author of bestselling contemporary fantasy books for kids and teens. Some of her titles include The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), The Modern Faerie Tale series, the Curse Workers series, Doll Bones, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Magisterium series (with Cassandra Clare) and The Darkest Part of the Forest. She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award, the Mythopoeic Award, and a Newbery Honor. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret door.
Mat Johnson
Mat Johnson is the author of the novels Loving Day, Pym, Drop, and Hunting in Harlem, the nonfiction novella The Great Negro Plot, and the comic books Incognegro and Dark Rain. He is a recipient of the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship, The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature. Mat Johnson is a professor at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Kij Johnson
Kij Johnson is an American fantasy writer noted for her adaptations of Japanese myths and folklore. Her Tor.com story "Ponies" won the 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Her story "Fox Magic" won the 1994 Theodore Sturgeon Award, her novel The Fox Woman won the Crawford Award for best debut fantasy novel, and her subsequent novelFudoki was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the best fantasy novels of the year. She is also an associate director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas.
Kelly Link
Kelly Link is the author of the collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, and Get in Trouble. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults,Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Gavin Grant
Gavin J. Grant is the publisher of Small Beer Press, an independent press based in Massachusetts whose books have been awarded the Philip K. Dick, Shirley Jackson, Hugo, and Locus Awards, as well as selected as the best of the year by TIME Magazine,Salon, Booklist, Village Voice, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others. Since 1996 he has (with Kelly Link) edited and published Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, a twice-yearly small press zine. Del Rey published The Best of LCRW. From 2003-8 Grant and Link edited the fantasy half of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. Originally from Scotland, Grant moved to the USA in 1991 and has worked in bookshops in Los Angeles and Boston and for BookSense.com. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Hartford Courant, Strange Horizons, and Time Out New York, among others. He lives with his family in an old farmhouse in Northampton, MA.
I just want to say that while various ailments of middle age (things like a kid and a mortgage) prevent me from applying, I've had the chance to attend a pretty small informal Q&A with Holly Black, and she's a blast.
If you are a person who could maybe apply, who is thinking about applying, take some advice: go for it while you can. Even if it means you need to find a different near-minimum wage job to replace the one you had to quit, or stay with your folks until you can find an apartment to replace the one you couldn't keep. You can try to figure out the money if you get accepted, but if you don't apply now you might not have the chance later.
I will give $60 by paypal to fund fimfiction writers to attend these writing workshops if one is accepted.
"One story, preferably both, should be genre."
Um. What genre? Isn't everything some genre...?
4740160 "Genre" in this context means "commercial", and probably fantasy / SF / horror / mystery .
4740182
I still don't understand. What does "commercial" mean? I would assume it has to be sci-fi or fantasy.
$200 you say? Consider yourself all in.
I will pledge $200 by PayPal to fund Fimfiction writers to attend these writing workshops if one is accepted.
(Yeah, I know that actually puts the pledged contributions over $200 since 4740083 already pledged, but $200 is such a nice, round number.)
As an intuitivist writer, I am deeply suspicious of the value of workshops, much less a whole month of them. Once you have a basic knowledge of craft, how to use and when to break rules, it seems to me that spending a month living life and trying new things would be about a million times better for your artistic life than retreating to a cloister where you can listen to a bunch of people talk about writing. I think the latter would feel really good at the time and end up netting you little.
I realize you and many others profoundly disagree. It's just where I stand on this stuff.
4740230
I can totally see that, but at the same time I think a month living and writing surrounded by other writers could be really educational aside from the workshopping-- like a whole month living in a Writeoff.
Plus, you get to meet some pros plugged in enough to be Clarion faculty, and writers who are plugged in enough to be attending, and "Clarion attendee" looks pretty in a submission letter.
I'll add $200 by PayPal for anyone that is accepted and decides to go.
4740230
I don't profoundly disagree, but I do disagree. Strongly. The lone method lets you intelligently try new things. The workshop method lets you watch 18 people intelligently try new things. The lone method lets you apply your familiarity with writing to see how to improve. The workshop method lets 18 people apply their familiarity with writing to see how to improve in 18 different ways.
More importantly, the workshop method lets 18 different approaches clash and evolve. At that point, you're not just improving your writing. You're improving your method of improving, and you're doing it every single day for a month.
4740230 The format of all of these workshops is something like this:
Mon-Fri:
8AM: Turn in a story if you have one ready.
9-10AM: Instructor gives a lecture.
10-noon: Each member of the group critiques each of the 3 or so stories group members turned in the day before.
Instructor hands out copies of the stories handed in that morning.
1pm-midnight: Read the stories handed out. Write critiques of them. Write your own stories.
Sat+Sun: Write & critique. Do laundry. Extra credit: Get your instructor drunk.
There are usually 18 students, and you critique about 90 stories, so each student on average writes 5 stories during the workshop. You can bring trunk stories and , but that's just not how it's generally done.
I can pledge an IOU
4740627 An IOU is a pledge. So you might as well pledge.
4740639
Touché
I could probably find $25 in couch change. Count me in.
This reminds me: science keeps trying to invent a device that will make you completely invisible, but science fiction has had it for years. It's called the Philip K. Dick Award.
We just need to figure out how to turn it off.
I am pledging 100$.
4740083 4740189 4740330 4740699 4743693
Thanks very much! That's $785!
Now I should try to get a site post or an ad on fimfiction & EQD.
4744004
I'll pledge $115 to make it an even one grand in the pot.
-
Er, an even $900. I'm not very awake at the moment.
Adjust the Pledge: I didn't know this one was going on but I'm willing to put 100$ to it to raise this to 1000$.
4802459 4800647 Thanks very much! I've updated the ad, but I won't run it again until tomorrow morning. We'll know pretty soon whether anyone applies. The Odyssey deadline is April 1 IIRC, but the Clarions are Feb 28 & Mar 1.