Genre Grapevine on How Clarion West’s New Partnership Could Make In-Person Writing Workshops More Affordable

The science fiction and fantasy genres have long had a “pay it forward” attitude, with genre fans and established writers frequently supporting newer writers and helping them move forward with their careers. And one way this has traditionally been accomplished is through writing workshops.

One of the genre’s earliest residential writing workshops was the Milford Writer’s Workshop, founded in the 1950s by Damon Knight. Other famous in-person workshops include Clarion, Clarion West, Odyssey, Viable Paradise, Taos Toolbox, and many more.

However, these residential workshops have long struggled with being affordable for new writers. Not only can tuition and other costs be expensive, it can be financially difficult for people to take the time off from work to attend the sessions, which can run from one week for Viable Paradise to six weeks for the Clarion and Clarion West Workshops. And international students have frequently had difficulty attending in-person workshops in the USA and Europe due to issues related to costs and visas.

Because of this – and also in response to the inability to hold in-person sessions during the early years of the COVID pandemic – some workshops like Taos Toolbox have not held new sessions in recent years. Others, such as Odyssey, have transitioned to virtual workshops while other workshops like Clarion West now offer both in-person and virtual programming. And there have also been new virtual workshops created, including the award-winning Writing the Other workshops founded in 2015 by Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford.

However, there are aspects of attendance-based workshops that can’t be replaced by virtual sessions, including the ability to network and connect in person with fellow students and instructors along with having personal interactions with your teachers. There’s also the ability to focus exclusively on your writing during attendance-based workshops, whereas students in virtual workshops can be continually interrupted by the daily distractions of work, family, and life.

Because of that, I’m thrilled to see Clarion West take a major step towards making their in-person workshops more affordable. Later today, Clarion West will officially partner with Common AREA Maintenance (CAM) in Seattle to establish a long-term, affordable space for artist residencies, classes, and other events.

Under the partnership, the two organizations will develop “a residency model which will support multiple artists and writers year-round. The intended residency framework prioritizes sliding scale rates and supporting larger cohorts, allowing artists a distraction-free space to hone their craft, share their work, and collaborate.”

As part of the partnership, Clarion West will donate $100,000 to fund building renovations for the new shared space. These funds come from a 2019 bequest by the late author Vonda N. McIntyre, who founded Clarion West.

To learn more about what this partnership means for Clarion West, I interviewed Marnee Chua, the organization’s executive director.

Jason Sanford: The science fiction, fantasy and horror genres have long been known for innovative workshops that “pay it forward” and help the next generation of writers succeed. But in the last decade, these in-person workshops have struggled. How is Clarion West trying to change this pattern, and how much does affordability for participants factor into this decline?

Marnee Chua: We’ve found that affordability and accessibility are the two primary factors that make running a writing workshop increasingly more difficult in the last ten years. We’ve done a lot of work to be more adaptable to the changing environment, and we’ve found that the greatest needs range from opportunities to build community beyond in-person programming, to offering a greater number of scholarships, to offering a larger variety of options that may better suit the needs of today’s writers.

Our pivot to offering a virtual workshop has allowed us to serve writers globally or who would be unable to travel to Seattle for six weeks due to other obligations, but there is still a strong desire for in-person connection.

The partnership with Common AREA Maintenance (CAM), another Seattle arts organization, means that we will share the overall expenses of facility costs. We are thrilled that both organizations align so well in mission and who we serve, with the shared vision of a full residency floor for artists and writers year-round, this means that we will be able to support an affordable six week workshop as well as other workshops in need of housing.

Jason: What is the long-term goal for this new partnership between Clarion West & Common AREA Maintenance?

Marnee: Our vision for the residency program is to offer both individual writers & arts organizations more options to bring guests, fellows, cohort programs like the Six-Week Workshop, and professional teaching artists and writers to Seattle.

Our goal is to make residency stays more affordable and allow for larger cohorts to be supported. As you can imagine, this partnership is especially important for Clarion West’s Six-Week Workshop, as it will provide a long-term, sustainable location that is in-person, affordable, and fully ADA-accessible.

Highlights:

• 18-room residency floor offering individuals and arts organizations a unique residency experience in the heart of a major US City.

• Opportunity for international and cross-cultural exchange for Seattle/King County residents and visiting artists from around the country and around the world.

• Opportunity for artists and writers to offer classes, readings, open mic events, and other literary events for the Greater Seattle Community.

We already know that residencies are beneficial to participating artists and writers by helping generate their creativity, create opportunities for them to learn and teach new skills, and to inspire new projects. A space that allows for larger and more long-term cohorts is especially conducive to this. The program intends to help other workshops keep going at affordable rates, and that is what we think is especially unique about it.

Jason: Clarion West is a six-week in-person workshop. Will the in-person workshop be held in the new CAM location? Will it continue to be six weeks?

Marnee: Yes! Our partnership agreement is meant to lock in Clarion West for six weeks every summer and to host the six-week workshop in-person at the new CAM location. The building is 30,000 square feet, has an elevator, and the residency floor will be its own, self-contained area with 18 individual bedrooms, shared bathrooms, and common areas for workshopping. The activation of the building and gallery and event spaces will also give future Clarion West classes a thriving community to plug into while they are in Seattle. Many of us are already dreaming about opportunities to explore workshops of various lengths at other times of the year.

I want to add that the Six-Week Workshop has been alternatively an in-person workshop or a virtual workshop since 2021, depending on the year and access to facilities. We have dedicated a lot of staff time in developing a virtual workshop experience that works for those who need it, and because there is so much interest, we hope to continue offering some version of the workshop online indefinitely, including offerings like the Novel Writing Workshop.

Jason: A number of prominent writing workshops around the world have shifted in recent years to virtual sessions. What are the pros and cons of virtual sessions over in-person workshops, and what’s lost by going virtual only?

Marnee: We hear from so many students and prospective students that virtual is the only way they can consider participating. Whether it’s an opportunity for care givers who can’t get away from their duties, an opportunity for international students who are unable to obtain a visa or raise funds to travel out of the country, or students with other accessibility needs who could not attend an intensive workshop in person, the virtual workshop has a lot of benefits.

Moving the workshop and other programs online has also helped expand Clarion West’s reach globally and this is something so important to us as we seek to foster a more inclusive culture and enrich the work of our students by offering those opportunities for connection from anywhere in the world! The ability to host so many programs online is, in some ways, the realization of a dream. Clarion West’s home is Seattle, but we’re now able to be wherever writers need us to be!

I think it’s also important to note that going online has meant making some changes to our workshop format. Clarion West and all of these workshops that have developed an online opportunity have worked to ensure it supports the students’ needs. In the last three virtual workshops we’ve run, we’ve seen each cohort develop close bonds. I would also add that the virtual format has allowed many of us to be more creative in how we approach our programs. At Odyssey Workshop, they are now able to focus on one-on-one attention. For Clarion West, we’ve added a mentorship component and we’ve been able to bring the instructors together before the workshop begins in a way that we never had before.

Selfishly, I think the number one thing that has been lost during the virtual workshops is that our Seattle community doesn’t get to meet the class and their instructors, which was a highlight for genre readers and writers every summer. When you don’t bring the cohorts and instructors together in one place, you lose the benefits of that exchange in your city. When the workshops are in person, it is also easier for students to shed their other responsibilities and spend the workshop focused on their craft. This is a priceless opportunity that we are looking forward to bringing back.

Jason: The funds for this partnership come from a bequest by the late Vonda N. McIntyre, who in addition to being an award winning author also founded Clarion West. How do you think these changes fit in with McIntyre’s dreams for and decades-long work with Clarion West?

Marnee: Thank you for asking this question! It means a lot to all of us in the greater Clarion West community that we are able to use these funds in exactly the way that Vonda intended. She had been very interested in seeing the workshop move to an accessible location and keeping the workshop affordable for students. This partnership with CAM will allow us to do both of these things, and give us a lot more say in what the expenses of the residency space will look like.

This project really is the culmination of so many of our dreams. I know that all of us at Clarion West have been dedicated to carefully stewarding Vonda’s bequest for the right purpose and by making this huge commitment, we know that Clarion West will have a place to hold the workshop for years to come.

It’s a very scary time to make this large of a commitment, with everything going on right now. Arts funding has to spread a lot further, making it more important for smaller organizations to partner. It’s also a critical time for all of our programs and activities, and support to sustain all of our ongoing programs is needed now more than ever as we take on this big risk.