Clarion West

Year-round Classes: In 2024, Clarion West held 24 online classes and workshops with 460 participants attending from all over Seattle, the United States, and around the World. These included 5 reduced-price community classes with 197 participants. Prominent authors in the field of speculative fiction taught workshops year-round, including Amy Chua, Shingai Nijeri Kagunda, Naseem Jamnia, Brian Hugenbruch, Marcella Haddad, David Gilmore, Chinelo Onwualu, Eden Robins, Susan J. Morris, Laurie Penny, A.T. Greenblatt, Ian Muneshwar, and more! Clarion West is committed to racial equity in the field of speculative fiction and provided 39 free seats for writers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. The Flash Fiction Group program hosted 120 participants for six weeks of critiquing online. Our Flash Fiction Workshop is a six-week online intensive experience that empowers writers to create new work and offer and receive critique from their peers. Clarion West also hosted two one- day workshops in Seattle for 20 people with instructors L. Penelope and Seanan McGuire.

Outreach Programs: Clarion West hosted its annual author series featuring prominent speculative fiction authors Usman T. Malik, Brenda Peynado, Cadwell Turnbull, Sarah Pinsker, Ruoxi Chen, and Carmen Maria Machado. An average of 60-80 participants attended the readings in person and 10-20 attended virtually and these are available on Clarion West's Youtube Channel for anyone to view indefinitely. Thanks to the Amazon Literary Partnership, and other arts grants, this summer reading series was free to the public. Other Seattle-based author events offered in 2024 included: Steamy in Seattle on May 10th. Award-winning author Melissa Marr and best-selling author L. Penelope discussed women writing speculative fiction. This event hosted 47 participants in-person and 20 participants online. On July 8, Clarion West partnered with Two Hour Transport for a hybrid open mic event for short story authors. This event had 13 in-person attendees and 2 online. Additional outreach programs included the Roots & Future of Feminist Science Fiction panel with 138 participants and other partnerships such as a weekend writing workshop with Hedgebrook for 20 writers, and a Seattle Arts & Lectures partnership for a discussion series with Ted Chiang.