Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Odyssey Writing Workshop

I got back this weekend from the Odyssey Writing Workshop. What an adventure! Odyssey is a six-week intensive workshop for writers of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, and horror). And I mean intensive! Jeanne Cavelos, the director, warns participants not to bring a lot of DVDs, books, or gear for non-writing stuff, because you basically write and eat and occasionally sleep while you're there. That was true for me.

I'll post a few more times in the upcoming days about the workshop, but today I want to highlight the instructors that we had.
  • Jeanne Cavelos is the director and founder. She's a writer and former editor and all around editing wizard.
  • Gary Braunbeck, best known as a horror writer, was our writer-in-residence for the fifth week of the workshop. He was generous beyond belief with his time and an excellent lecturer.
  • Christopher Golden, scheduled to be our first guest lecturer, needed to bow out for health reasons, and was replaced by Elaine Isaak, who gave an inspiring lecture on setting.
  • Theodora Goss, former Odyssey participant, spoke about the importance of voice.
  • Barry B. Longyear lectured on the importance of research and description.
  • Elizabeth Bear's lecture focused on the different ways to plot a story.
  • Our last guest lecturer, editor John Joseph Adams, shared his experience with genre short fiction markets.
Since I was accepted to Odyssey, I've discovered a few other Odyssey graduates living near to me. Any other Odyssey graduates out there in central PA?

1 comment:

don helin said...

Hi Kathryn: Wow, sounds like a great conference. Six weeks of intensive work. I get tired after four days at ThrillerFest. Look forward to what you learned.