Each week during the workshop, we present one of our six current instructors reading her or his best new work from recent books, unpublished stories, or novels-in-progress. The featured reader also answers questions about writing, teaching, editing, and other topics.
Admission to all 2011 readings was once again free, and all were held on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. at the University Book Store's main location, 4326 University Way NE in Seattle, Washington. Copies of the readers' works were available onsite for purchase and signing.
2011 Readers
The readers for the 2011 Clarion West Summer Reading Series were:
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Paul Park - June 21
 Paul Park's surreal and splendid Roumania series (A Princess of Roumania, The Tourmaline, The White Tyger, and The Hidden World) has earned starred reviews and multiple award nominations. Park captivates his audiences by weaving elements of classic folk tales, fantasy, science fiction, religion, history, and humanism into worlds both deeply strange and hauntingly familiar.
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Nancy Kress - June 28
Nancy Kress is reigning queen of hard science fiction and the winner of three Nebula Awards and a Hugo. She writes about real people confronting advanced technology and tough moral choices. A warm, compelling presence in person, Kress’s recent books include Nano Comes to Clifford Falls and Steal Across the Sky. She’s best known for her Sleepless series, based on the novella “Beggars in Spain.”
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Margo Lanagan - July 5
Margo Lanagan invokes the primal power of fairy tales through characters driven by joy, sorrow, and heart-clenching secrets. Her collection Black Juice received two World Fantasy awards; she also won World Fantasy awards for her novel Tender Morsels and her novella “Sea-hearts.” Making a rare visit from her native Australia, Lanagan will share her writing live and fresh with the storyseekers in all of us.
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Minister Faust - July 12
Minister Faust is coming to Seattle to blow minds and chew bubblegum--and he's all out of gum. A performance poet and radio broadcaster, Faust bends genres with his offbeat, innovative, satirical blend of pop culture, politics, and social justice issues. His recent novel From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain received the Carl Brandon Kindred Award and a Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation.
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L. Timmel Duchamp - July 19
L. Timmel Duchamp challenges the status quo with passionate science fiction short stories focusing on sex, gender roles, music, and the life cycles of institutions. Her five-volume Marqu’ssan Cycle received a James Tiptree, Jr. special citation and she’s the founder of Seattle's Aqueduct Press, home to other award-winning authors. A perceptive writer and courageous reader, Duchamp offers a humorous, clear-voiced take on current and recurrent world affairs.
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Charles Stross - July 26
Charles Stross is the author of some of the past decade’s most exciting and idea-rich works of science fiction, including The Atrocity Archives and Singularity Sky. A three-time Hugo Award winner, he is an imaginative, savvy prognosticator of the effect of technology on society. The reading is a rare opportunity for Seattle audiences to hear this dynamic British writer. Stross is the 2011 Susan C. Petrey Fellow.
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Photograph of Paul Park © 2008 Leslie Howle; used with permission. Photograph of Nancy Kress © 2009 Leslie Howle Photograph of Margo Lanagan © 2006 Steven Dunbar; used with permission. Photograph of Minister Faust © 2008 Malcolm Azania; used with permission. Photograph of L. Timmel Duchamp © 2010 Leslie Howle; used with permission. Photograph of Charles Stross © 2008 Leslie Howle; used with permission.
The 2011 Clarion West Summer Reading Series was presented by Clarion West and University Book Store, and co-sponsored by King County 4Culture and Amazon.com. Additional support was provided by Norwescon, the Society for the Furtherance and Study of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the Susan C. Petrey Fund, and the Australian Arts Council.