Hi All:

Some of last year's Clarionites contacted me and asked me to put this advice for you on this blog.

Here we go!

See you soon,
Shelley

From Ghislaine Lai:

- Go to the 99 Ranch across the bookstore. It is so close. The food is so cheap. The small bits of control are so precious.

- Sleep a lot. It saves lives.

From Karen Osborne:

- Leave every single expectation you have at at the door. 

- Go to the beach as much as you can.

- Pull at least one all-nighter, but not too many.

- Don't shirk while critiquing your classmates' work, even if it's late and you're tired. You will learn the most through seeing what they do and recognizing it in your own work. 

- Earplugs. Noise-cancelling headphones. The sports teens are many, and they are loud.

- Have your friends at home send you care packages and encouraging letters -- they will feel AMAZING when it's week four and you're exhausted!

- Don't stay safe with your writing. Experiment. Do something new. Don't aim to sell these stories; aim to write the most gonzo, beautiful, stories-of-your-heart that you possibly can. You will never have this chance again. 

- Your story starts on page 6. Trust us. We know.

- Sit together as a class for every meal.

- It's fine to say to your friends and family: "Guys, I'm just not going to deal with this problem right now, I'm in California doing this thing I've wanted to do my entire life, if the house isn't burning down I'm not listening to you lalalalalaaaaa." Live in the liminal space for as long as you can. 

From Ma. Christina Cruz:

Clarion 2018! This workshop changed my entire relationship with Story for good. I hope it does this for you, too. Here are some notes from the random Pinoy (Filipino) from last year's Clarion:

• First, trust the process.
• Second, enjoy it. This will never happen again. That is a good thing. If you feel you're too stressed to enjoy it, then just remember to breathe. 
• There will be seagulls. Sometimes squawking at the seagulls will result in seagulls squawking back. Do not approach baby seagulls. They are bait.
• Drop everything when you see dogs. Pet them.
• There will be, from time to time, murderous screams from kids and adults near the dorms. Do not be afraid unless they are directly screaming at you. Plan accordingly. Ear plugs, good heaphones, etc.
• For my fellow people from the tropics, there will be very cold nights and nice warm days. Bring appropriate clothing. Moisturize. Sunscreen. When you finally break and need rice there is some at the complex with the snazzy bookstore inside the campus. There is also Panda Express. Possibly sushi. 
• Raid the salad bar everyday. Stay healthy!
• Buy a SIM, it's just easier that way (unless your phone's locked to your network, in which case bring a dumb phone AND buy a SIM). You will need it for emergency purposes at least one time during the workshop.
• Chair in room not that comfy. Sit on your pillow, see if that helps. 
• Stretch, walk, do something physical everyday.
• Get to know your roommates, they will see you at your best and at your worst. Be there when they need you, ask them how they're doing, support their process, declare your own.
• You will, at the end of it all, have to find a way to ship reams of paper (copies of your stories with handwritten crits on them) to your house. Consider just taking a picture of each page with crits using Evernote (it has an auto-scan mode) if shipping cost will be a problem. Do it early enough and you can spend your last day chilling instead of frantically taking photos of paper. 
• If you all go digital with the critiquing, great, but do not assume at the onset that everybody is comfortable with purely online commenting--you will grow to love the hearts and enthusiastic check marks people draw on parts of your story.
• Be kind but be yourself with your workshop mates. They are yours now. For life.

From Nina Niskanen:

A few things I wish I'd known before Clarion:

- Doing the critiques for others is even more important than getting critiqued. I had so many lightbulb moments because of the critiques I gave.

- It is okay not to do everything. You do not need to submit a story every week.

- Being unable to language is common.

- The California Sun is a Thing. Sunscreen is your friend. SPF50 and up.

- Mysterious Galaxy is an amazing place with wonderful people who will do their best to make it into nerd haven.

- Use the pre-workshop nervous energy to brainstorm some ideas. 

- Your classmates are also your secret weapon, not just during the six weeks, but later as well. They'll be there to cheer you on and share resources of places to submit your stories.

- Organize an ice-breaker as soon as possible. Start talking to each other immediately, if not sooner.

- Do at least a little exercise daily! Seriously! I am not one prone to exercise normally, but became fanatical about it during those six weeks. Stretching, yoga, walking, or even get a "membership" at the gym/pool. The chairs in the class are murder on your back and the mattresses aren't much better. Exercise to make sure that you can keep working because pain is a terrific killer of creativity!

- Walk to the beach to watch the sunset as often as possible. It takes 20-30 minutes of your evening but it's also a good chance to step out and remind your brain that your body exists.

- Find a way to talk to each other digitally. Our class has a slack and we still talk to each other over it, but it was also a wonderful way to keep track of everyone during our time at UCSD.

- Clean up after yourself in the common room! There is no one to clean after you but your classmates and they're also busy with all the same stuff you're busy with! Don't leave one or two people as the responsible ones who have to organize everyone else as well!

- Steal ice cream and popsicles from the cafe! 

- Fill the common room walls with silly drawings and encouraging or funny sentences!

Dear Clarionites:

I’m writing to introduce myself to you all and add a few last words of advice before you head off to Clarion.

First of all, I’m greatly looking forward to meeting you all this Sunday! I’ve been Clarion’s Faculty Director since 2010 and am a UCSD Professor with a joint appointment in Literature and Ethnic Studies. I teach classes on science fiction and other topics at the undergraduate and graduate levels here. One of my specialties is archival research and I’d love to help you take a look at the Clarion archives housed at UCSD if you’d like—they include almost all of the stories ever written by Clarion students.

My new book, Imagining the Future of Climate Change: World-Making through Science Fiction and Activism, was recently published in the University of California Press’s American Studies Now! series.  Part of that book has grown out of the part of my research I am most excited about these days, which is the work I’ve been doing with the Octavia E. Butler Papers at the Huntington Library in San Marino. If any of you is interested in Butler and/or her papers, I would love to talk to you more about that as well.

Second, I want to tell you a little more about my role at Clarion. I serve on the Admissions Committee and read a lot of application stories each year, so I always look forward to seeing the class take shape and witnessing each writer’s pathway through the program each summer. I will also be in the classroom with you two days a week, usually on Mondays and either Thursday or Friday. I read all the stories that are being critiqued each day, participate in the round robins from wherever I am sitting in the circle, and give writers written feedback on their stories.

I also hold office hours at least once a week after lunch and will leave some time at the beginning of each session in case anyone wants to just stop by to chat. I’d like to have a quick (10minutes or so) check-in meeting with everyone during the first two weeks and then meet once again for a longer time (half hour) weeks 4-6. For the second meeting, I always offer to read an extra story and give you feedback—whether it is a trunk story, one I missed in workshop, something that is too long for the workshop, or something else it would be helpful to have discussed. That also gives me a chance to find out how things are going. You should come to me during the workshop if you have questions or issues and I will try to help out.

If you have any questions now, feel free to email me at sstreeby@ucsd.edu. I’ll also be attending the weekly readings at Mysterious Galaxy with you all as well as many other activities that come up. I’m on Facebook and Twitter and happy to connect those ways: https://www.facebook.com/shelley.streeby

https://twitter.com/ShelleyStreeby

Finally, I’m writing to advise you to take a second look at a couple of the documents I believe Patrick sent out earlier: Chris Barzak’s “The Dynamics of Workshopping” and Nalo Hopkinson’s Letter. I am sending them out to you again in a minute over email, so be sure to look for them if you don't have them Because people have a wide range of experiences before coming to Clarion, I find Chris’s handout, which he composed when working as first-week instructor for the stellar 2015 class, the most useful explanation of how the round-robin works and what kind of feedback is most helpful. That class did the round robin beautifully and they were an amazing group. Giving feedback is an art and it’s one I’ve been happy to see many writers hone while at Clarion in ways that benefit others and themselves. Each instructor will likely make small changes in response to their own needs and based on what they think is best for this group.

Nalo Hopkinson’s Letter is also a good thing to reread and take to heart while at Clarion.

OK, that’s all for now, but please feel free to email me or reach out on social media before you come or anytime once you’re here. This is going to be a great summer! Here’s my first try ever at answering some of those questions:

Do I have a nickname? Not really, though my little brother Victor used to call me Blot because I got ink all over everything. My sister-in-law used to call me Ice Pick trying to imagine what it would have been like being me growing up with five rowdy brothers.

What do you like to read?  Some favorites are Octavia E. Butler, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ted Chiang, Kim Stanley Robinson, Philip K. Dick, Nora Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, James Tiptree, Jr, Lynda Barry, Samuel Delany, Karen Joy Fowler. Also love recent work by recent Clarionites such as Sam Miller, Carmen Machado, Lisa Bolekaja, Alyssa Wong, and many many more. 

What kinds of things do you write? I am currently writing a book on female science fiction writers and the memory-work they did by organizing and leaving large archival collections to research libraries and other institutions—so far this has involved research on Octavia Butler, James Tiptree, Jr., and Judith Merrill, but I am also digging deeper into archives at the University of Oregon and finding more. Throughout my career I’ve been a scholar of popular literature and culture from the 19^th century to the present. My first book was on class and empire in dime novels and best-selling 19^th century sensational fiction and my second was on how radical social movements used culture to organize transnationally from the 1880s-1920s. I’ve also written a recent article on reading the work of the great cartoonist Jaime Hernandez as queer speculative fiction. And I also write science fiction short stories from time to time.

What do you to relax or for recreation? San Diego is a great place to get outside. You all are within walking distance from a beautiful stretch of coast that includes a gorgeous beach and cliffs overlooking the ocean. I love beach-hopping down this part of the coast, especially at low tide, with particular favorites being Beacon’s Beach and Moonlight Beach in Encinitas and Silver Strand on Coronado Island. I also love the marsh and the beach at the Tijuana Estuary at the border.  Torrey Pines a few miles up I-5 from UCSD is an incredibly beautiful place. I also love walking in my neighborhood in South Park/Golden Hill on the border of Balboa Park—I highly recommend visiting the park and the little neighborhoods around it, many of which have craft beer and good restaurants. I’m also into gardening, especially growing vines and succulents.

See you soon!

Shelley Streeby

Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin

Hey everyone,


Since Ursula is such a beloved figure in our circles, I thought this would be of interest. The nonprofit I work for, Literary Arts, was asked by Ursula's family to create a live event to honor her life and work. I was fortunate (and very, very nervous, tbh) to be tasked with doing all of the visual design.

Speakers include our own Kelly Link, Margaret Atwood (by video), Molly Gloss, Walidah Imarisha, Jonathan Lethem, China Miéville, and Daniel José Older.

You can watch the livestream here on Wednesday, June 13 at 7:30pm PST.

In the slim chance you're located near Portland, OR there are still a handful of free tickets left to the show.

Best,
Alanna

Introduction: DM Armstrong

Hey, all. Sorry for the much delayed response. I'm very excited to meet all of you, to read your work, and get to know each of you.

Do you have a nickname?

No.

What do you like to read?

Authors I’ve enjoyed in the past year or so: China Mieville, Hanya Yanagihara, Jeff Vandermeer, Jesmyn Ward, Colson Whitehead, Ken Liu, Paolo Bacigalupi, Mark Haddon, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Manuel Gonzales, Brian Evenson, A. Merc Rustad, Maxim Loskutoff, John Scalzi, Kelly Link, Leigh Bardugo, Dale Bailey, Anthony Doerr, Dan Vyleta, Charlie Jane Anders.

What kind of stories do you write?

Mostly fantastical/fabulist—based in reality. I’d call it urban fantasy, but it’s often rural. (Almost no high fantasy). Sci-fi: leaning toward near-future, near-reality-based over space opera or far-flung future. Also realism.

How would you describe your personality?

Private.

What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?

Writing. Reading. Biking. More writing.

Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?

My wife and three-year-old son. I hope.

Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?

I did a masters and a PhD in creative writing, so I guess that counts as “intensive”? Nothing so compressed for time though. Or genre specific. Both of those attributes make Clarion exciting, but also scary (see below).

What scares you most about Clarion?

I process slowly (as is evidenced by the lateness of this post), so I’m hoping I can work quickly and well with everyone’s feedback. Possibly being out of touch with what my fellow writers are doing. Only figuring out how to take full advantage of Clarion after I’ve left Clarion.

What do you do to relax or for recreation?

Write. Read. Bike.

What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?

Pen. Notebook.

What is your ideal career?

Move to writing/screenwriting full time? A little less teaching creative writing.

What else do you want us to know about you?

I write literary and speculative fiction and push to meld those two with every new publication. Here’s what I write and what I’ve published: www.davidarmstrongwriter.com.

I’m always looking for people with whom I can talk about books, and I’m always looking for recommendations from other writers/readers who share my interests. I've wanted to attend Clarion for a long time and am thankful to be sharing this experience with all of you this summer.

The 3Cs: Comic-Con & Cosplay?

Since past groups have been able to go to comic-con together, I thought it'd be fun to post some themed questions. Some food for thought. Some "so are we all going as the whole LOTR fellowship or what?". You know, that. So . . .

Have you gone to Comic-Con before, and if so, when?

What fandom peaks your fancy?

Will you cosplay? If you could/can, what will it be as?

What celebrity would you be most excited to see?

Is there a particular panel/area you are most excited to see?


Feel free to add extra questions or anything you would like to share about yourself. :)

ALSO, I know that not everyone enjoys the idea or experience of Comic-Con, or may be nervous about going. If you're one of those people, don't feel like you have to participate if we do become able to go. There are so many amazing things to do in SD, Comic-Con is just one, and so if you think you rather go do one amazing thing instead of this specific amazing thing, then go for it!




I suppose it'd be right for me to go first:

Have you gone to Comic-Con before, and if so, when?

I've never been, though I have wanted to for a long time. Two years ago, my roommate and I walked around downtown, outside of the convention center and admired all the cool cosplays people had on, while grabbing some good food to eat. But I've never been in, so I'm excited to go.

What fandom peaks your fancy?

      I love Stranger Things. LOTR. I enjoyed Sherlock while it lasted (but book Sherlock will always have my heart). Jurassic Park is my shiz--not the new movies. No.
      Superpeople movies are a thing I enjoy, but only the movies, so it's a casual relationship. I love Disney because, well, childhood (can Disney be problematic? absolutely. Do I still wish I had all my old VCRs from when I was five? Maybe . . .). You know what's not problematic? Studio Ghibli. Also childhood, and adulthood.
       I think that's it for now. Just me and my basic-ness.
     
       P.S. I was wrong. Avatar the Last Airbender and Gravity Falls.

Will you cosplay? If you could/can, what will it be as?

      So my friends and I have a long-running joke that revolves around the internet phenomenas of "Gandalf Epic Sax Guy 10 Hours" and "Teen Dresses up as Sexy Gandalf". So I will likely be dressing up as sexy Gandalf (Gandalf with stockings and heels underneath the long cloak), blasting the sax from a speaker every so often.
     OR I'll do something less weird. Mabel from Gravity Falls? Pointy-boob Lara Croft? Wonder Woman? Cthulu? The Raven from E.A.P.'s poem, but just the Raven? The world is my fabric store.

What celebrity would you be most excited to see?

      I made this question, but I don't have a good answer for this question. I'm not too acquainted with the comic world, but I'd like to meet the cartoonist Aminder Dhaliwal and Larry F. Houston. And anyone from said interests above, of course.

Is there a particular panel/area you are most excited to see?

      I have just realized that very little is confirmed for this year's Comic-Con. So I guess no, not right now, but we'll see when they post more info on the website.

P.S.S. Maybe this is just me, but I find a good amount of fun in posing/answering seemingly random questions (i.e. if you could be part animal, but only one animal and it would have to be your top half only, what would it be?). If you too have thought about this, I encourage you to do so.

Hi all! I'm late to the party (just found the blog invite in my spam!) but I am so very excited to meet you all and clock some intimate hours with your words + ideas!

Picture of me sandwiched by wolves:

Do you have a nickname?
I use Eliza + Liza interchangeably.

What do you like to read?
I love big slabs of world building. Kim Stanley Robinson is the writer working now who stimulates / moves me the most. I'm definitely on team Jemisin (to join the chorus!) and recently I've been spending time with Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun. The folks who got me into the SF game were Samuel Delaney, Octavia Butler and Ursula K Le Guin. I just finished Christopher Priest's Inverted World and found it lovely!

What kind of stories do you write?
I write SF, sometimes in worlds akin to our own, sometimes in extreme environments. My language is literary but sober, although lately I've been playing with more stylized prose. I use SF as a tool of critique, although I hope my stories are living, compassionate texts. I want to use Clarion as a chance to veer from my usual genre orientation and ventilate my hard SF with a breath of fantasy.

How would you describe your personality?
Cynical but curious and joyful (but very, very cynical).

What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?
I live in LA but am moving back to NY to teach right after Clarion, so I would have been writing my dissertation (I'm nearing the end of a PhD program) and working my three jobs in LA to save up for New York's inhumane cost of living.

Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?
Not for SO long! I went to the Iowa Young Writers' Studio as a bratty little teenager and haven't stepped into a creative writing class since.

What scares you most about Clarion?
Writer's block! I tend to seesaw between prolific phases where I feel naturally stimulated and passive phases where I just read & absorb. I can only hope Clarion coincides with the former, and I'm counting on the environment to coax me into that mode.

What do you do to relax or for recreation?
I moved to LA for the nearby nature. The city is nested between so many different landscapes, and I love foraying into them with friends.

Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?
All of the above (except: no kids)! Everyone in my LA extended fam is sore at me for making myself scarce right before moving away.

What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?
My car. I've fallen prone to American car culture and I'm very attached to this bubble on wheels that is my only zone for privacy.

What is your ideal career?
I'm too social to be able to imagine a career that consists only of writing. I will probably teach in some capacity, since I'm currently on the academic track. I also work as a translator and will probably do so forever.

What else do you want us to know about you?
I translate from Polish to English and I've lived in Poland for long stretches of time. In LA I work at a sensory deprivation therapy center and a bookstore and do research and writing for a virtual reality production company. I learn through work so at any moment, I'll have multiple jobs in disparate environments. 

Introduction: Silvia Park

due to a shortage of selfies

Do you have a nickname?

Just Silvia :)

What do you like to read?

All kinds. Recent loves are Carmen Maria Machado, Jeff VanderMeer, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mieko Kawakami, rediscovered Ursula Le Guin, and Elfriede Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher. Also, I managed to get a signature from George Saunders last week and I need to brag because he drew me a ghost!

It looks approximately like this:

:o

What kind of stories do you write?

It’s hard to say; I don’t think I’ve written enough short stories to see a pattern yet (I spent far too long on a novel project that was killing me softly). But right now, I’m writing about robots and hermaphroditic mermaids. I’m also trying to write more happy endings.

How would you describe your personality?

I’m one of those introverts who mistakenly thinks she can pass for an extrovert. I can come off as reserved, but that’s just my lobster shell and I’m quite cheery underneath, like a lobster-armored Santa. I wish I could be more chipper on the outside, but that only happens when I’m very, very tired. A candle’s final flare so to speak.

What would you do this summer if you hadn't been accepted to Clarion?

Likely wither in a dark corner of the room like a parasitic mushroom. And continue to write.

Who will miss you most while you're in San Diego (cats, kids, partner, boss, coworkers)?

Hahaha, did anyone pick their boss? For me, it’s my family and friends.

Have you participated in an intensive writing workshop before?

I’m in an MFA program, so I’ve definitely done workshops but nothing quite like Clarion. I hear it’s nose-bleedingly intensive. *shudders*

What scares you most about Clarion?

The “one story a week” deal. Not having a car. Or a driver’s license. Being forced to eat eggs that “taste like felt” because of said lack of car and driver’s license.

What do you do to relax or for recreation?

Lately, I’ve been marathoning Bob’s Burger. I’d really like to dabble in figure drawing and water color this summer.

What 1-2 essential things will you bring to Clarion besides your laptop, watergun, and espresso maker?

Water filter.

What is your ideal career?

Full-time writer who can travel as an excuse for “research.”

What else do you want us to know about you?

I grew up in South Korea, I used to visit Japan quite often, and I’m living in NY for the time being.