Teaching science fiction and fantasy writing for 40 years, Clarion is one of the oldest and most well-respected writers' workshops in the nation. Established in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson with help from eminent science fiction writers Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm, the workshop provides an intensive six-week education in the basics of creating speculative fiction. From 1972 to 2006, the workshop was hosted by Michigan State University in East Lansing. It is currently hosted by the University of California, San Diego. Both my wife Janet and I are graduates of the Clarion class of 2002.
Clarion Foundation
Nonprofit established in the autumn of 2005 to ensure the continued existence of the Clarion Writers' Workshop through both financial and physical support. The Foundation's board of directors includes Kate Wilhelm, James Patrick Kelly, Leslie What, Nancy Etchemendy, Karen Joy Fowler, Walter Jon Williams, Kim Stanley Robinson, Kelly Link, and Cory Doctorow.
NCSU Young Writers' Workshop
A non-residential two-week summer writing camp that brings students grades 4-8 together with published North Carolina writers for classes in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and drama. Started in 1984 as a nonprofit project by the Raleigh Writing Alliance, a group representing writers and teachers of writing in the area. Previously conducted through the cooperation of NCSU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Humanities Extension/Publications Program, the workshop now runs under the auspices of the NCSU Department of English. I taught both literary and science fiction writing at the YWW from 2004-2006.
Strange Horizons Workshops
Started in 2002, these intermediate-level workshops were designed for fiction authors who have started publishing in pro-level markets, and who are interested in developing their craft further in the company of individuals at a similar level of proficiency. The discussion is on a generally literary level, focusing on how to make the stories better as stories, regardless of genres. Many of the participants workshop speculative fiction, but not necessarily all. I was an attendee of the Oregon workshop in 2004.