The Clarion science fiction writers' workshop at Michigan State in is pretty grave danger, despite its auspicious, 30+ year history of turning out some of the finest sf writers in the field. A bunch of alumni have started a SavingClarion mailing list to talk about how to keep the workshop going after it loses its berth at MSU. Click the link below to join.
At Wiscon last week, Lister Matheson (the director of Clarion East for the past several years) and Mary Sheridan hosted a brainstorming session to talk about what we can do to keep Clarion alive despite MSU's financial and political machinations.
We came up with some ideas, both short term and long term, in that hour and a half. Step 1 in the plan is to organize a core group of Clarionites to continue the discussion via a listserv, come up with other ideas, and begin to implement some of them. Many people who were there were eager to continue the conversation, and I think all of you might have thoughts to contribute as well.
I just set up the list, and will wait a couple days for everyone to get on it (and for Lister, Mary, and Amelia at Clarion to get back online–the university relocated their offices to rooms without sufficient electrical outlets), then summarize what we've discussed, immediate action items, and we can go from there.
I hope you'll consider joining this conversation by following the Yahoo instructions below to join the group. Feel free to direct others who may want to join us to contact me as well. Thanks.
(Thanks, Becky!)
