Get an Aussie to Clarion West

G’day! My name’s Tacks. You might know me from hosting the Aurealis Awards, MCing Conflux, presenting the Ditmar Awards, programming Continuum, running the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, or various other events, groups, or shenanigans in the Aussie SFF scene. I’m about to do something fantastic for my career but devastating for my wallet: I’m going to Clarion West.

Mate, you’ve lost me. What the hell is a Clarion West?

The Clarions - Clarion (original), Clarion West (this one), and Clarion South (defunct) - are a series of extremely selective and prestigious six week workshops for writers. They’re a bit special among writing programs of this calibre in that they’re specifically for writers of science fiction and fantasy. The first Clarion kicked off in the late 1960s, Clarion West spun off in the 1970s, and since then they’ve produced alumni including but not limited to Octavia Butler, Jeff VanderMeer, Cory Doctorow, Tamsyn Muir, K Tempest Bradford, Cat Rambo, Tobias S Buckell - listen, I could go on, but if you care about the full list you can check Wikipedia. The point is a lot of these writers credit the Clarions with their early success.

Clarion West only accepts 18 writers each year and receives approximately one squillion applications, so it’s very competitive and I feel very lucky right now.

Can’t you do this closer to home?

Sadly, no. Clarion South was based in Australia - weirdly close to where I went to school, actually - but it wound up in 2011. Other comparable programs in Australia are very hard to find and mostly only want capital-L Literature. My most recent output includes a whole anthology of body horror and a story about the discovery of a species of magical bees. I’m not welcome in those circles!

Wait a second. Doesn’t Clarion West have scholarships?

It does. I’ll be honest, mate… I didn’t apply for a scholarship because I didn’t think I’d get in. The odds were very long, and I am not a very established writer! But then I got in, and now it’s a bit late.

Besides, I’m actually pretty lucky. I have a job, which has very kindly agreed not to fire me when I vanish for six weeks in the middle of the year, and I have some savings. But I would like to actually use the skills I learn at Clarion West to write more stuff, and if I don’t get your help, I will instead have to take on a side hustle (derogatory) to pay off the costs.

All right, but what’s the donated money used for?

I won’t put in the full budget breakdown, but to summarise:

In total, this trip will cost me about AU$12,000. (Probably a little more, given exchange rates, but I’m being conservative.)

Hang on. Why are you only asking for $5000?

Two reasons:

Now, if my local needs want to show them how it’s done and really splash out on this, I’d be delighted. Let’s break some Clarion records for generosity or whatever. But I figure this’ll do me fine.

What if the fundraiser goes way over?

If the fundraiser goes way over - and by way over I mean I no longer need to apply for grants - I will donate the remainder. I haven’t decided where yet, because it’ll depend on the events afoot in the world - if my hometown burns to the ground I reserve the right to donate to the relief fund - but it’ll be one or more registered charities that do actual on-the-ground work for a good cause. As a veteran of the not-for-profit sector I have strong opinions about supporting charities that demonstrate impact in their communities. And at least 50% of any donations will be reserved for Australian organisations.

Do I get anything out of this?

If you choose to make your details known to me, you’ll get the opportunity to sign up to my not-that-secret mailing list, which will get exclusive updates about what I learn at Clarion West and cheeky previews of any work I start or finish while I’m there. You’ll also get a digital ARC of my yet-to-be-announced short story collection, which no one else gets to see for over a year, and early access to the final version once it’s ready to go.

If you don’t want any of that but still feel like altruism isn’t enough, hit me up and I can, I dunno, name a character after you or something.

I will also accept one-time prompts or writing challenges from donors. You can put in a request in your donation - “write a story about space tarantulas” or whatever - or you can reach out to me directly if we know each other!