Writing the Other and Clarion West, two Seattle-based writing organizations, are beginning a new partnership.

Clarion West will serve as the fiscal sponsor for Writing the Other, as the organizations explore partnership opportunities and shared resource development. Fiscal sponsorship will enable the two mission-aligned organizations to share resources, which keeps administrative expenses down. Clarion West and Writing the Other have previously partnered on a number of programs and events and already overlap with classes, writers served, and some leadership.

Award-winning author and Writing the Other co-founder, Nisi Shawl, is a graduate of the 1992 Clarion West Six-Week Workshop and has been on the board of directors for over 20 years. Nisi’s work with Writing the Other has helped create a thriving community of diverse writers focused on representation in fiction.

K. Tempest Bradford, a 2003 Clarion West graduate and Writing the Other’s Executive Director, said “In the past four years our online classes and webinars have grown exponentially and we loved expanding the subjects we taught and bringing more experts in to help us help more creators and writers create better representation. Now that we’re partnered with Clarion West, we have a much better foundation from which to grow even more and explore new avenues for the classes and beyond.”

Both organizations host online and in-person classes and workshops for speculative fiction writers and offer full and partial tuition scholarships for writers in need. In addition to gaining access to more resources and administration assistance, the fiscal sponsorship allows Writing the Other to accept tax deductible donations toward expanding their scholarship program and more grant opportunities.

“Since 2016 we’ve been able to offer scholarship spots in every class thanks to generous donations from the community,” said Bradford. “Our Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Scholarship is named in honor of our first donor, the beloved novelist and tireless supporter of up-and-coming writers. To date, the Sentient Squid Scholarship has provided over $20,000 in financial aid to a wide range of deserving applicants. We’re looking forward to expanding this program even further!”

WtO Scholarship Donation Page: https://writingtheother.com/donate-scholarship/

ABOUT CLARION WEST: The Clarion West Writers Workshop has been held annually in Seattle, WA, since 1986. Their program was founded on the belief that writers from diverse backgrounds need an opportunity to be heard — and to experiment with new forms of storytelling. With over 700 graduates from the Six-Week Summer Workshop, Clarion West has been a significant actor in helping the careers of speculative fiction writers, including women and other writers who have been traditionally underrepresented in the field. Clarion West provides year-round programs to over 1,500 writers annually.

Learn more at www.clarionwest.org. To learn more about their ongoing search for workshop housing: https://www.clarionwest.org/2022/11/21/clarion-west-workshop-needs-new-home.

For a full list of Clarion West scholarships, visit https://www.clarionwest.org/programs/summerworkshop/scholarships/.

ABOUT WRITING THE OTHER: Drawing on the acclaimed reference Writing the Other: A Practical Approach by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward, Writing the Other.com began offering online classes and workshops in 2015 with the idea that representation is fundamental to writing great fictional narratives found in short stories and novels, tabletop roleplaying games and video games, comics and graphic novels, short films and feature length movies. Our goal is to offer classes, workshops, and seminars by subject matter and cultural experts for any writer or creator at any level or point in their career who wishes to represent the “Other” sensitively and convincingly.

Learn more at writingtheother.com.

[Based on a press release.]