At our Annual Meeting March 5, three new members joined our Board of Directors and two longtime board members retired. Kelley Eskridge is our new board chair, and Kij Johnson ('87) is now our vice chair. Karen G. Anderson will take on some development duties such as grant writing, as well as her general board responsibilities. Both Kelley and Kij are award-winning authors with close ties to the Clarion West community, while Karen has a background in digital journalism and is active in the Seattle-area fan community, especially with the Foolscap convention.

Our outgoing chair, Deborah Fisher, remains on the board. Eileen Gunn, our outgoing vice chair, has retired from the board but remains active as a volunteer, as does outgoing Development Director Kate Schaefer.  Read more »

If you're a Clarion West member, you've been receiving our biannual newsletter through the mail since you joined. Now the Seventh Week will be available as a PDF--starting with our Spring 2010 issue. Although the old printed-on-paper edition will still be delivered to those who prefer it, we’re hoping most members will choose the new electronic option because:

• We can offer better content, including color photos and more in-depth articles and interviews.
• Fewer trees will die.
• We’ll save a ton on printing and mailing costs.

If you're a member and switching to a PDF of the Seventh Week appeals to you, let us know! Write us at 7thWeekPDF@clarionwest.org to give us your preferred email address and we'll tell you how to get your new electronic issues.

Potlatch 19 is in Seattle March 5 – 7, with special Clarion West guests and events. Hugo Award winner David Levine (‘00), fresh from his (simulated) Mars mission, is there, as are Nebula Award winner Ellen Klages, Vonda N. McIntyre (who has won both awards and founded CW’s first incarnation to boot), and others including--we hope--you. You won’t want to miss our scholarship auction Saturday night at 8 p.m., featuring Octavia E. Butler memorabilia, signed first editions from Jack Cady, Charles de Lint, Kathe Koja, and others, and a range of beautiful and peculiar craft objects.  Read more »

Clarion West will receive $3200 from Norwescon 33 to fully fund a scholarship for one of our 2010 writing workshop students. We'll select the scholarship recipient from among the eighteen applicants chosen to attend this summer's session of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. You can learn more about the workshop and the application process here. Incoming Clarion West Board Chair Kelley Eskridge and alumna Caren Gussoff ('08) will officially accept the donation during Norwescon 33's Awards Banquet, to be held on April 1, 2010.  Read more »

­­Our sixth Clarion West Write-a-thon ended on July 31, 2009, along with this year's Clarion West Writers Workshop. Several participants posted about their agony and ecstasy in the Clarion West Forums and on their blogs. K. Tempest Bradford spotlighted writers of color participating in the Write-a-thon and raised money for the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Fund as well as Clarion West.  Read more »

With your help, we've raised the money needed to meet the Amazon.com challenge grant three months early! Last October, Amazon.com told us they would give Clarion West $25,000 if we could raise $25,000 by October 31, 2009, and as of July 31 we've raised over $35,000.  Read more »