Elite Sci-Fi Writers Workshop That Once Had George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman Teaching Will Pay Your Way If You Say You're Transgender
The Clarion Writers Workshop used to be the place to be for an aspiring science fiction or fantasy writer. The six-week-long summer retreat had serious writers leave their jobs, families, and lives for intensive writing training by the top talent in the industry. Past instructors included George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman when they were in their prime, but at this point, another sci-fi institution has become a woke nightmare with the introduction of a scholarship for transgender writers.
The woke have ruined science fiction publishing over the last decade, with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion being forced into every aspect of genre writing. The Hugo Awards have become a joke, with activists winning over works of fiction that people enjoy reading. Several magazines actively discriminate against white people to promote skin color and gender ideology over merit.
Now, Clarion Writers Workshop is doing much the same, doubling down on the woke in 2025. Beyond the time intensiveness of leaving one’s life for six weeks, the tuition for the program is $6,000. That is, unless you’re a mentally ill man pretending to be a woman. Then, they will fund your way.
In an announcement on their website, they posted:
We are delighted to announce the Sea Star Scholarship, an annual full-tuition scholarship for our flagship Six-Week Workshop, offered by an anonymous donor, which will be awarded each year to one qualifying student who identifies as two-spirit, trans, nonbinary, or under the gender expansive umbrella.
Through the generosity of our donors, Clarion West provides a number of scholarships for writers every year. Approximately 60–90% of our Six-Week Workshop participants receive full and partial-tuition scholarships. Interested students must indicate financial need when applying to the summer workshop. Applications are reviewed without regard to financial aid requests. You can learn more about scholarships for the Six-Week Workshop here.
At Clarion West we are proud to be part of a supportive community for trans, two-spirit, nonbinary, and other gender expansive authors who continue to change and inform the landscape of speculative fiction for the better. We know that trans writers are and will continue to be essential in expanding the boundaries of SFFH and are equally essential in inviting new exciting voices into the field.
We know the journey for each trans writer is different, and that trans people represent all racial and ethnic backgrounds, faith traditions, and countries around the world. And we know that while there has been significant progress in the publishing world, the transgender community is still facing significant political and personal attacks through discrimination and violence, especially against Black and Brown trans women.
We remain committed to supporting trans authors and learning how to better support them in a field that can be hostile and unwelcoming. We do this through our efforts to provide an intersectional framework of support for trans authors. The organization welcomes trans faculty, seeks to create supportive spaces for trans authors in workshop groups, and makes every effort to create an inclusive community throughout our programs.
Transphobia is not welcome or tolerated in our classrooms, at our events, nor in our workspace. We support our students and community members with robust community guidelines and anti-harassment reporting policies. When we are informed of instructor or participant misconduct, Clarion West makes every effort to verify, follow up with those who may have been harmed, and to ensure that we take the steps necessary to prevent future misconduct, up to and including exclusion from Clarion West classes and events.
In the spirit of celebrating the contributions of trans and nonbinary writers to our field, we are working on a recommended reading list of trans and nonbinary writers who are either Clarion West alumni and/or Clarion West faculty! If you would like your website or stories on this list, please contact us at workshop@clarionwest.org!
Why they would have a scholarship specifically targeting mentally ill men wearing dresses is beyond reasoning. It seems they want to push these ideologies more than they care about the merit of sci-fi and fantasy writers.
What do you think of Clarion Writers Workshop pushing a transgender scholarship? Leave a comment and let us know.f
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To be fair, even if it was free, I wouldn't want to spend six weeks of my life listening to GRRM tell me how to disrespect and disappoint my audience. Or Neil Gaiman talk about making an inferior version of a better author's work while convincing gullible teenagers to come back to his hotel room, for that matter. Plus, most of the seminars would probably consist of listening to some self-centered narcissist talk about his gender journey at the conclusion of which I have to clap earnestly or I'm sent home, not to mention possibly losing my job when some irate volunteer complains to my employer that I wasn't "affirming". No big loss.
How much would you like to bet that they don't admit any hetero-normative white males, even if they pay their own way? I wish we could prove it and sue them.