It was while reading Harlan Ellison’s Again, Dangerous Visions as a shy teenager that I first encountered the concept of a writers’ workshop. Harlan was referring to the Clarion Writers’ Work- shop, founded by Robin Scott Wilson in 1968. Clarion seemed almost mythical to me. Over six weeks, a group of unpublished authors (with far more confidence than I had in 1975!) could have their fiction pummeled by each other as well as by a tag-team of respected science fiction writers. The workshop began at Clarion State College (now Clarion University) in Pennsylvania, but has long since moved to East Lansing, Michigan.

In the thirty-seven years since Clarion was established, it has been joined by several other prestigious workshops. One of these, Odyssey: The Fantasy Writing Workshop, was founded by Jeanne Cavelos in 1996. It is held each summer in Manchester, New Hampshire. This past July, I had the honor of attending both workshops as the guest editor.

I found the opportunity to attend these workshops exciting, because both workshops gave me the chance to do something I don’t get to do in the office—meet and critique stories with new authors. I am always impressed by the level of energy, enthusiasm, and dedication I find in the unsolicited manuscript submissions (better known as the “slush pile”) that show up at our office. Unfortunately, the volume of submissions is so heavy that I can’t respond personally to each author and still meet my publishing deadlines. In fact, I often don’t have time to read the entire story. If a tale doesn’t grab my attention quickly, I probably won’t get to the end of it. While most of the authors who submit stories to Asimov’s get form rejection letters, even the personal letters that I do write are necessarily terse. Only a very few rejection letters contain suggested story revisions. Before attending Clarion, however, I read a story by each of the students. At the workshop, I read at least two more stories by each student.

Although I had been to some three-hour workshop sessions at various World Science Fiction Conventions, the 2005 Clarion was my introduction to live-in workshopping. I said good-bye to my husband and kids on Wednesday, July 6, and flew off to Michigan. I was to be the Editor-in-Residence for one week. I tend to be chicken when it comes to flying, so Clarion had graciously agreed to fly me to Detroit. I was met at the airport by the delightful Catherine Shaffer, a science author and Clarion grad who has published both science and science fiction pieces in Analog. We’d met a couple of years earlier when one of Catherine’s essays received the AnLab Readers’ Award for the Best Science Fact article of 2003. Visiting with Catherine made the hour and a half drive to East Lansing speed by.

The students at Clarion work with six professional authors and an editor. Most of the authors lead a week of writing and critiquing sessions. The last two authors are called the anchors. They teach together for a two-week session. The first three authors at this year’s Clarion were Joan D. Vinge, Charles Coleman Finlay, and Gwyneth Jones. My own session began during the fourth week with the energetic Cory Doctorow. I’ve been reading Cory since he was a finalist for the Dell Magazines Award for best SF or fantasy story by a college student. I discovered at Clarion that in addition to his fiction, the Clarion students were quite familiar with The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction—a book Cory co-authored with Karl Schroeder.

That first evening, I spent some time unwinding with Cory and Catherine and the students. Later, I went to my room to read the stories that would be critiqued the next morning and to check my email. I had a letter from my sister Lynn, letting me know that she, too, had just arrived safely at her destination. Her convoy had made it from Kuwait to Baghdad, and she was about to begin her year-long tour of duty in Iraq. I knew that we would both be in for the long haul, but my minefields would be metaphorical and my tour would be shorter.

The workshop began at nine the next morning with a lecture on Internet rights by Cory, and then the day’s stories were critiqued by all. The next day, I explained the submission process at Asimov’s and the sort of things I’m looking for in stories. One of my props was a story that had recently sold to the magazine. It was a tale that I had worked on with the author, a graduate of Clarion West. He had given me permission to show the students the original story along with the first and second revisions. After that, the daily critiquing session began. In addition, I began to hold individual meetings with the students (as do all the authors who teach at Clarion). Throughout my week, I was impressed by the students’ group critiques. They managed to be respectful, even gentle at times, while delivering spot-on and helpful criticism. A number of the students appeared to be talented, and all of them had interesting things to say. All of the students seemed prepared to learn and grow from Clarion.

On Thursday night, Cory’s new book, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (Tor), was launched at Shueler’s—a local bookstore. On Friday evening, the students had an extra treat. Well-known horror author, Kathe Koja, drove out to Clarion to visit her old pal Cory, and to give a talk about her successful new career as a Young Adult author. Cory left later that weekend, and we were joined by two Nebula-Award-winning authors—Leslie What and Walter Jon Williams—the anchor team. The students wrote at a ferocious pace, and turned in a flurry of stories on Sunday and Monday. Leslie and Walter alternated with talks about writing on Monday and Tuesday and we all critiqued stories. Like Cory, Walter and Leslie provided the students with thoughtful and probing comments on their stories. Tuesday night, Leslie, Walter, and I participated in a panel discussion at the local Barnes & Noble. On Wednesday morning, I gave a talk on the art of the first paragraph—that one and only shot most unknown writers have to grab the editor’s attention. Walter followed with a talk on rights. I had to miss his lecture, though, because I was now on my way to Detroit and my flight back to New York.

I managed to return to the office for two days, spent the weekend reminding my children that they really did have a mother, and then I was off by train to the Odyssey workshop in New Hampshire. Although the Odyssey workshop also lasts six weeks, the experience is a bit different from Clarion.

Instead of having a different writer lead each week, the workshop is taught by Jeanne Cavelos, an experienced editor, writer, and teacher. Jeanne brings in guest authors and editors. This year the guests included Elizabeth Hand, P.D. Cacek, Allen M. Steele, and James Morrow. Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem were also there for a week long Writer-in-Residence program.

At Odyssey, I didn’t overlap with any of the other professional guests. I read four stories before attending the workshop. Monday night, Jeanne held a reception, which gave me an opportunity to meet the students and answer some questions. That night, I read the three stories that would be workshopped the next day. The following morning I compressed most of what I’d had to say at Clarion into a two-and-a-half-hour lecture. The lecture was followed by the group workshopping session. Once again, I was struck by the students’ insights and suggestions. I was also impressed with Jeanne’s ability to take apart a story and offer constructive criticism without inflicting permanent injury to the student. Later that afternoon, I had individual meetings with the students who had authored the first four stories.

After a long, but rewarding, day, James Patrick Kelly—SF author and columnist-extraordinaire—picked me up and took me back to his house for an evening of swimming, a cookout, and a boat ride with him and his wife, Pam. It was a lovely way to end an intensive couple of weeks.

Although I was brought in to teach, I learned a number of things at both workshops. Watching Cory, Leslie, Walter, and Jeanne gave me ideas on how to improve my own teaching skills. Listening to the students gave me insights into their questions and into their commitment to writing. They may not all end up with professional sales, but they will all improve their writing skills and grow from the workshop experience. I realized that to survive the workshop, your epidermis doesn’t really have to be all that tough; as long as you remember that it really is the story, not the author, which is being critiqued. Each story is a work of art, just like a clay pot or a piece of jewelry. The artist can take the lessons learned from a good critique and use them to improve the work—or make the next one better. I was thrilled to attend these workshops as a teacher, but maybe if I’d understood this concept as a teenager, even I could have survived a Clarion or an Odyssey as a student.

You can contact Clarion at clarion @msu.edu, Clarion West (another well-known workshop) can be contacted at info@clarionwest.org. Odyssey can be reached via www. sff.net/odyssey.