Clarion Instructors

Each year, the six-week summer workshop is run by a team of six authors working in the field of speculative fiction. Typically, the first four weeks are each run by a different instructor, while the last two weeks are anchored by a pair of instructors. These instructors live on-site for the duration of their stay and are continuously available to students of the workshop. Instructors moderate daily workshops, provide 1-1 feedback on the student’s work, and offer professional advice in the field.

Visit our 2026 Workshop Homepage to learn about the instructors for this year's workshop!

Past instructors have included N.K. Jemisin, Kelly Link, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Samuel Delany, Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, and John Scalzi. Many Clarion alums return, decades later in their careers, to teach at Clarion.

Archive of all past Clarion Instructors

Harlan Ellison (1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1984, 1992)

Fritz Leiber (1968, 1969, 1970)

Robert Thurston (1968)

Damon Knight (1969, 1974, 1979, 1993)

Frederik Pohl (1969)

Kate Wilhelm (1969, 1974, 1979, 1993)

Samuel R. Delany (1970, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1982, 1988, 1995, 2000, 2006, 2010)

Joanna Russ (1970, 1971, 1976)

Leonard Isaacs (1972)

Theodore Sturgeon (1972)

Robin Scott Wilson (1972, 1974, 1979)

Glenn Wright (1972)

Ben Bova (1973)

Gordon R. Dickson (1974)

Thomas M. Disch (1974, 1976, 1979, 1986, 1989)

Joe Haldeman (1975, 1976, 1981, 1985, 1993, 1995, 2006)

Gene Wolfe (1975)

A. J. Budrys (1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987)

Carol Emshwiller (1978, 1979)

Kit Reed (1980)

Elizabeth Lynn (1981, 1984, 1985)

Orson Scott Card (1982)

Marta Randall (1982)

Edward Bryant (1983)

Phyllis Eisenstein (1983)

Joyce Thompson (1983, 1986, 1990)

Michael Bishop (1985)

John Kessel (1986, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2011)

Suzy McKee Charnas (1987, 2000)

Karen Joy Fowler (1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2015)

Lucius Shepard (1987)

Lisa Goldstein (1988, 1992)

Timothy Powers (1988, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002)

Kim Stanley Robinson (1988, 2009)

Octavia Butler (1989, 1997)

Spider Robinson (1989)

James Patrick Kelly (1990, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2015)

Michael P. Kube-McDowell (1990)

Connie Willis (1990)

Gardner Dozois (1991, 1996)

Ellen Kushner (1991, 2007, 2016)

Dale Bailey (1992, 2010)

Nancy Kress (1992, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2006)

Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1992)

Dean Wesley Smith (1992)

Eleanor Arnason (1993)

Ellen Datlow (1993)

Howard Waldrop (1994, 2003)

David White (1994)

Shawna McCarthy (1995)

Judith Tarr (1995, 1996, 1999)

Maureen McHugh Yeager (1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2015)

Gregory Frost (1996, 2000, 2007, 2014)

Elizabeth F Hand (1996, 2009)

Terry Bisson (1997, 2002)

James Frenkel (1997)

Joan Vinge (1997, 2005)

Jonathan Lethem (1998)

Patrice Murphy (1998, 2001)

Alice K. Turner (1998)

Scott Edelman (1999, 2003)

James Morrow (1999)

Mike Resnick (1999)

Michaela M. Roessner-Herman (1999)

Tananarive Due (2000)

Sean Stewart (2000)

Steven Barnes (2001)

Geoffrey Landis (2001)

Kelly Link (2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2018)

Mary Turzillo (2001)

Patrick Nielsen Hayden (2002)

Geoff Ryman (2002, 2008, 2014, 2022)

Leslie Glasser What (2002, 2005)

Patricia Wrede (2002)

Nalo Hopkinson (2003, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2024)

Richard Paul Russo (2003)

Andy Duncan (2004, 2013, 2016, 2023, 2019)

Jeffrey Ford (2004, 2012, 2024)

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (2004, 2011)

Gordon Van Gelder (2004)

Cory Doctorow (2005, 2007, 2013, 2017)

C.C. Finlay (2005, 2017, 2023)

Gwyneth Jones (2005)

Sheila Williams (2005)

Walter Jon Williams (2005, 2012)

Holly Bes Black (2006, 2009, 2012, 2018)

Michael Swanwick (2006)

Cordelia Sherman (2007, 2010, 2012, 2016)

Ann VanderMeer (2007, 2010, 2014, 2019)

Jeff VanderMeer (2007, 2010, 2014, 2019)

Neil Gaiman (2008)

Mary Anne Mohanraj (2008)

Robert Crais (2009, 2013)

Larissa Lai (2009)

Paul Claiborne Park (2009)

George R.R. Martin (2010)

Elizabeth Bear (2011, 2025)

David Anthony Durham (2011)

Kij Johnson (2011, 2018)

John Michael Scalzi (2011)

Ted Chiang (2012, 2016, 2022)

Cassandra Clare (2012)

Marjorie M. Liu (2012)

N.K. Jemisin (2014)

Catherynne Valente (2014)

Saladin Ahmed (2015)

Christopher Barzak (2015, 2018)

Margo Lanagan (2015)

Victor LaValle (2016)

Lynda Barry (2017)

Rae Carson (2017, 2023)

Daniel Chaon (2017)

Andrea Hairston (2017)

Mat Johnson (2018)

Maurice Broaddus (2019)

Karen Lord (2019)

Carmen Maria Machado (2019)

Gwenda Bond (2022)

Greg van Eekhout (2022)

Sam J. Miller (2022, 2024)

Christopher Rowe (2022)

Alaya Dawn Johnson (2023)

Tochi Onyebuchi (2023

Anjali Sachdeva (2023)

Matt Bell (2024)

Alyssa Wong (2024)

Isabel Yap (2024)

Jedediah Berry (2025)

Premee Mohamed (2025)

GennaRose Nethercott (2025)

Annalee Newitz (2025)

Cadwell Turnbull (2025)