Clarion West

Mission

Clarion West supports emerging and underrepresented voices by providing writers with world-class instruction to empower their creation of wild and amazing worlds. Through conversation and public engagement, we bring those voices to an ever-expanding community.

Speculative fiction—science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, and slipstream—gives voice to those who explore societal and technological change, along with deeper considerations of underlying archetypes of human experience. Although there are fine science fiction and fantasy writers of all ethnicities, races, and genders, historically the field has reflected the same prejudices found in the culture around it, leading to proportionately fewer successful writers of color and women writers than white male writers. Within the limitations of the workshop, Clarion West is dedicated to improving those proportions.

Our vision is to set emerging and underrepresented writers on the path to success by:

• Fostering greater equity and inclusion in the speculative fiction world;
• Bringing quality speculative fiction to light; and
• Bringing writers and readers together.

In 2024, we worked with 1,043 writers, including 18 writers from all over the world in our Six-Week Workshop, 247 in our free in-person programs, and 460 in our online programs.  We provided 56 scholarships for financial aid and BIPOC participants. Participants were from Seattle and all over the world!

Year-Round Programs for Writers

Clarion West brings award-winning and best-selling writers in science fiction, fantasy, games, horror, and more to Seattle and to writers and readers all over the world. Our workshops and classes are taught by world-class instructors from across the field of speculative fiction. 

Writers from novice to experienced find a diverse listing of classes packed with valuable information to take their writing to the next level — and each year Clarion West alumni are actively publishing novels, short stories, collections, game narratives, screenplays, and more! 

In 2024 alone, Clarion West alumni published 30 short stories, 10 novels, 2 anthologies, 1 collection of short stories, 2 nonfiction essays, 2 novelettes, 4 novellas, 2 podcasts, and 1 game, 1 picture book, and received over 12 awards and nominations!

Clarion West offers instruction throughout the year, and our workshops and classes vary in intensity, topic, and number of sessions. 

We invite prominent authors from across a broad range of speculative fiction to teach our classes and workshops. A few of our most recent instructors include Usman T. Malik, Brenda Peynado, Cadwell Turnbull, Sarah Pinsker, Ruoxi Chen, Carmen Maria Machado, Susan Palwick, P. Djélí Clark, Fonda Lee, Tobias S. Buckell, Bill Campbell, Annalee Newitz, and Charlie Jane Anders

Pictured above: The 2024 Summer reading series with Usman T. Malik and Nisi Shawl at Hugo House, Ruoxi Chen and Molly Templeton at Third Place Books Ravenna, and Class of 2024 students Laurie Sample, Charles Velasquez-Witosky, and C.Z. Tacks on stage with Week 2 instructor, Brenda Peynado at Hugo House.