Clarion Moves
Posted on September 11, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 30 Comments
This bit of information will be of interest primarily for the SF/F geeks who visit here: Clarion is moving.
The Clarion Foundation is pleased to announce that the Clarion Workshop has a new home. It’s difficult to leave MSU, having been there since 1972. However, the future looks very bright. Starting in the summer of 2007 the workshop will be held at the University of California San Diego, with very strong administration, faculty, and financial support. Our acclaimed workshop, with its excellent teaching staff, will continue with no change in the structure of its operation. The faculty for 2007 will be Gregory Frost, Mary Ann Mohanraj, Jeff Vandermeer, Cory Doctorow, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. The workshop will run from June 25 through August 3. Further details will be posted later today.
Man, now I totally want to teach at Clarion. I know. I’m shallow. But I do love San Diego.
Cool! My dad’s from Imperial Beach, born on the Coronado Naval base there. My daughter was born in Hillcrest.
That is to say, I also love San Diego. Now if I could just get into Clarion…
Ah, kindred spirits…my twins were born at Balboa Naval Hospital, and I still go twice a year to visit my best friend. I’d go with or without Clarion!
Wow. Now Clarion West can only maintain its name by virtue of a handful of degrees longitude!
And let’s not forget: San Diego Comic-Con will be going on at the same time. The oncoming geekgasm might shatter the very fabric of nature.
Hmmm… Let’s see.
– SLF Mentee Fall ’06.
– Scalzi says he wants to teach at Clarion as of late ’06.
– Clarion Faculty for ’07 already posted.
– Apply for Claron 2008.
– Scalzi profile will undoubtedly rise from TLC Publication (it will be out by then) and also Android’s Dream.
– Sacrifice chicken + pray to right gods = get accepted to Clarion.
Begin stalking Scalzi in San Diego Spring of 2008.
Memo to self: beware Scalzi’s bodyguard wife. Wear enough padding to deflect bat wielded by lovely cook, mother and homemaker (is wife working professional woman? If (true) Complement on skills in workplace.
Bring chocolate to Clarion. Begin chocolate suckup… NOW!!!
I just wish I could take a month off of work. :(
I enjoy some SF and am something of a geek, but it appears I’m definitely too little of an SF/F geek and too much a Pennsylvanian. I just read “I totally want to teach at Clarion” and completely thought of this.
Well, that’s where Clarion got its name — the first of these workshops was held there.
I’m sure there are people, like our charming host and some commenting, who think that Clarion San Diego is a marvelous idea. A number of us from the 2004 Clarion workshop in East Lansing MI have already commented to each other that this is a terrible idea.
Okay, Clarion had/wanted to move. But there are NO schools east of the Mississippi who could host? We have to have TWO Clarions on the Pacific Coast and nothing across thousands of miles elsewhere?
There are other things to say, some are here on my blog.
Sorry to rain on other people’s happy dance parade. This is a BAD move on the part of the Clarion Foundation.
Dr. Phil
Scalzi,
All I can do is laugh and shake my head. This one of those moments when learning something new actually makes me feel dumber.
So it’ll be Clarion West and…Clarion West.
Well, as much as I dig San Diego, I feel badly for the East Coast folks who have to hike out another 1700 miles to attend Clarion.
It’s 2300 miles or so from East Lansing MI to San Diego CA.
True, some on the East Coast wouldn’t be detouring through East Lansing (grin), but I think 1700 miles would leave you considerably short of Clarion San Diego — which is my point exactly. (double-grin)
Dr. Phil
I’m glad that Clarion is taking steps to a sounder, more stable existence. However, as a Clarion aspirant who lives in the East, I’d hoped that if they left MSU, it would be to move further east not west.
Oh well, it isn’t going to stop me from applying some year when I feel I write well enough to get in and can get 6 weeks off work.
No love for the Midwest.
I’m a 2005 Clarion grad, and a San Diegan who made that 2300-mile hike out to East Lansing. So, yes I’m biased towards having it here because that means I get to help, but I also sympathize with those who have to travel farther. I’ve done it, and still do it for a biannual commute to my college writing program in PA.
Walter John Williams, who’s on the Clarion board, has been posting a letter around to try and help explain the reasoning behind Clarion’s move. It’s actually in the comments of a blog by this year’s Clarion director, and is over here:
http://community.livejournal.com/clarionites/16783.html?thread=42895#t42895
Dr. Phil
Now I feel sad, too. Okay, I want my SF workshop in the east coast!
(whine)Man! Now not only do I need to figure out how to get 6 weeks off, I’ve got to drive or fly farther.(/whine)
Hopefully this will highlight the other workshops on the east coast.
Just to clarify: the Steve Ely above is not me.
(Unsure what the protocol is here, or whether one is even warranted… I’ve never in my life encountered someone whose name was a close match to mine, so it’s a little freaky.)
You two must fight! Now!
Well I’m saddened by this. It will sure make being a Clarion groupie (some would say stalker) a bit harder. And it looks like they have such a great line up of instructors next year. Ah well, I wish them luck, I know MSU wasn’t giving them the support they deserved. East Lansing seems a bit bleaker now and I will miss the Thursday night readings/signing sessions at Archives bookstore.
You mean the Scalzi Steel Cage is already finished and open for combatants? Damn, that was quick!
That’s the power of teh intertubes, Adam!
Sweet! Then I’ll pull up a chair, get me a plate of green bean casserole, and prepare for Ely vs. Eley: The Namening to begin.
Round one. Fight!
Man, if I start fighting Stephen Eley, there’s really no telling where it’ll all end. For nearly 29 years, I thought I had a practically unique name. Then I discovered last year there’s a whole swarm of people out there named Steve Ely. It may be of interest (and freakoutitude) to Stephen Eley or perhaps to those, like Adam, looking for a massive rumble.
Ah, so that’s why I never saw any. The other Steve Homonyms are all spelled your way.
I cannot fight you! I need you! You’re acting as a buffering agent, keeping the Equifax vice president and the good-looking minister safely in your spelling, allowing me to dominate “Steve Eley” in Google. >8->
(I’ve got 95 of the first 100 hits. For the other five… There’s a registered nurse somewhere who will have to be vaporized.)
You know, that’s what I’ve always said. I’m pretty sure I was just telling someone yesterday, “There’s a registered nurse somewhere who will have to be vaporized.”
But there’s always a registered nurse who needs to vaporized. It’s one of the immutable truths.
Yeah, it’s a lost cause. You vaporize one, and another one registers.
I like your style, Other Steve. I propose we join forces, and form a coalition to wage war against the Axis of Steve Ealy.
What do you think? Are you with me? Or are you… (*dramatic pause*) …with them?
It looks as though, one way or another, Adam’s casserole will not go to waste, and his and John’s appetite for homonymic violence will be sated.