A Guide to Sci-Fi Writers Workshops

Elliot Feldman, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 6, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Are you an aspiring science fiction and/or fantasy writer? Have you found that most creative writing courses never really adequately address your genre, or look upon it with a degree of disdain? The good news is that there are notable writers workshops geared specifically to sci-fi and fantasy writers. The bad news is that these workshops are few and far between. But, if you can wangle the cash, or your work merits a fellowship or scholarship, there are a handful of quality conferences made for both the aspiring and the published writer. The granddaddy of them all is the Milford Science Fiction Workshop, started in the sixties in Milford, Pennsylvania by legendary sci-fi writers Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm. While Milford aimed at published writers, in 1968 it had also helped spawn the six-week Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop at nearby Clarion State College. Unlike Milford's peer-to-peer approach, Clarion aimed at talented aspirants.

Clarion

The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop has been limited to a select number of participants and has attracted instructors from the upper echelons of science fiction including Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Harlan Ellison, Samuel R. Delany, and Octavia Butler. In 1972, the annual workshop moved to the campus of Michigan State University (my alma mater) in East Lansing until 2006. In 2007, the workshop moved to the University of California San Diego.

To apply: Participants in the workshop must submit two original science fiction short stories, each between 2500 and 6000 words in length, along with their application and application fee.

Milford Science Fiction Workshop

Milford is still going strong, but it's now located in the UK and is promoted as an international science fiction writers workshop. Unlike Clarion, there are no instructors or students. All participants are published authors. One published short story is the minimum requirement.

In 2008, the week-long Milford Science Fiction Workshop will be held in Wales at Trigonos. Participants have included James Blish, Bruce Sterling, and Neil Gaiman.

Odyssey Writing Workshop

The Odyssey Writing Workshop is a small prestigious workshop with an emphasis on fantasy writing. It's held annually on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Instructors have included Harlan Ellison, Terry Brooks, Ellen Datlow, and Ben Bova.

The Center for the Study of Science Fiction

In 1982, science fiction writer James Gunn founded The Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. It was one of the first major university curricula aimed at science fiction writers. In 1985, Gunn then established the university's first Writers Workshop in Science Fiction. Actually, The Center offers two annual two-week workshops: one for short fiction writers and the other for novelists.

Writers of the Future

While L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology are controversial topics for some, Hubbard the science fiction writer's longstanding Writers of the Future contest is one of the most prestigious of all science fiction writing contests. Its judges have included the likes of Robert Silverberg, Theodore Sturgeon, Roger Zelazny, John Varley, Gene Wolfe, and Anne McCaffrey.

Sources:

Clarion at Michigan State

Published by Elliot Feldman

I'm a veteran television writer (Match Game, Hollywood Squares) and cartoonist (Los Angeles Reader) I've also written for online versions of Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit. View profile

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A Guide to Sci-Fi Writers Workshops

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