Clarion SD Instructors
I’m not sure when the list went public, but Clarion SD has posted the list of instructors for 2010.
- Delia Sherman
- George R. R. Martin
- Dale Bailey
- Samuel R. Delany
- Jeff VanderMeer
- Ann VanderMeer
You guessed it, I have not read any of them. I suck. I did recently buy Steampunk, a collection edited by the VanderMeers. I haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list. That’s got to count for something, doesn’t it?
So who are they?
Delia Sherman writes for both young and adult readers. It appears I’ll have to do some research to get a goo feel for what unique contributions she might bring to the workshop, though her partnership with writer Ellen Kushner could turn into a double-team of instructors. Both women write in the “fantasy of mnners” subgenre (a new one on me).
George R. R. Martin boasts a long career including a plethora of Hugo and Nebula awards, editing and production experience with The New Twilight Zone (1980s) and the CBS series Beauty and the Beast (which I recall my parents watching in the late 1980s). His awards track record suggest he is a true arist in the medium of novellas.
Dale Bailey’s work seems to populate the biggest and best of anthologies (Year’s Best, Nebula Showcases, etc.) I may well drive past his house every time I visit my parents (not quite, but I pass near his hometown of Hickory, NC) and he got his post-graduate degrees in my old hometown (Knoxville, TN). Most of his work seems to be in the horror genre.
Samuel R. Delany has a unique perspective on life as a black, gay, dyslexic writer (a combination that inspired his Hugo-winning autobiography). He has several Hugo wins and a stack of nominations (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, you name it). He appears to have just a much success and notority as a literary critic as he does writing; now there’s a skill set that could benefit aspiring writers like me!
The VanderMeers are each successful in their own right. Ann is fiction editor of Weird Tales magazine (for which she won a Hugo) and founder of Buzzcity Press. Jeff won a World Fantasy Award and has been finalist for most of the other big awards. I’d love to see the two of them imitate another Clarion married couple (Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight) by teaming up the last two weeks. I suspect that ay be the plan.
All in all, a good lineup. How does it compare to Clarion West’s dancecard? I’m not sure. Both are good. I’m eager to apply to each. I better get writing!
Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos 
I think I might have just finished my submission piece for Clarion… now I will fall over dead. Hopefully it looks this good tomorrow.
Good luck, enjoy your reading! There are some top notch writers on this list here.
Finished your Clarion story? Good for you. I’m still trying to decide what to write next. I feel the need to start something new. “Poison Inside the Walls” is pretty much finished and may prove to be my Clarion story. I have one that was almost done that I feel the need to totally rewrite, but I think it’s time to start something new. Maybe my “festival of the naked man” story? I need to check my freewriting to see what ideas I’ve stashed away.
I don’t currently have any characters clawing to escape from inside me. I need to find some somewhere, at least one. I think that’s what drives me to write, the characters.
Good luck with your story. If you need another pair of eyes on it, let me know.
it’s up at OWW if you want, Seeing that it posted at almost 8k due to their word counting thingy, I doubt I’ll get much response… but you can take a look if you want. It’s called “Crawlies”
I liked Poison Inside the Walls. What’s this naked man story? That sounds interesting…
I saw a documentary about a religious ritual in a Japanese city. A man is selected to run naked through the town square to the temple. It is good luck for the other men to touch him. So here’s this guy running to the temple and the rest of the city’s men (usually drunk) try to touch him all at once.
Anyway, I envisioned that as a SF story set on a colony planet. Not sure what narrator to use, though, so I haven’t written a word.
Maybe put a twist on it to add some sort of tension? Like if you don’t touch him you get culled or gelded or set off to the war or something? Seems like a neat image/idea, but not sure where the plot is in that idea yet…
Wow, what a line-up. I didn’t cry when I received this year’s Clarion SD rejection, but next year I might.
Both lineups look quite good. Last year, despite not being previously familiar with the instructors, I quickly decided West was where I wanted to be. (So close.) So far, I think I’ll be equally happy either place.
I didn’t cry over either rejection…and trust me, I’m a crier. (Surprised?) I did get depressed. I’d have been better off crying. But you and I are both getting in this year, right? So no crying needed…until we have to pay for it. 😀