Clarion West’s flagship Six-Week Workshop will be held online in 2025. The format will look slightly different.

The Six-Week Workshop is where a cohort of writers spends six weeks together writing and workshopping short fiction under the instruction of industry professionals. It serves emerging and underrepresented speculative fiction writers who want to strengthen their short fiction skills.

The workshop focuses on centering the author’s intention for their work, helping them level up in areas they wish to improve, and offering opportunities to make professional connections within the field. They build a strong and collaborative workshop cohort who continue to support them long after the workshop ends.

The 2025 workshop will run from June 22 to August 2 and is led by instructors Maurice Broaddus, Malka Older, editor Diana Pho, and Martha Wells, and workshop staff. Students will meet Monday through Friday in three-hour class sessions to learn the craft and business of writing short fiction. In weeks led by instructors, students will write stories to workshop in class, and spend time preparing notes on each other’s stories.

New in 2025, the first week will be staff-led in order to focus on orienting the students to workshopping models and building a rapport with the cohort. The fourth week of the workshop will also diverge from the workshopping structure, with the group instead meeting for about 90 minutes a day to attend lectures from each of the instructors.

Throughout the summer, students will meet one-on-one with each instructor, have the opportunity to attend instructor readings and participate in fun social activities, and meet other Clarion West alumni and industry pros.

Applications open on December 1, 2024, and close February 15, 2025. Interested writers should prepare to submit a writing sample of no more than 10,000 words, as well as to answer questions about their interest in the workshop and what writing means to them. For more information, visit Clarion West’s Six-Week Workshop page.

[Based on a press release.]